Sekirei: Merciless And Infectious
by The Clown King Of Chaos
Summary: Alex Mercer is on the run from Blackwatch, and finds himself in a city where he isn't the only thing that isn't human. To make matters worse, he introduces the new city to the virus that created him.
1. A Living, Breathing, Intelligent Disease

A/N: I would to dedicate this story to my friend phen0m20, who taught me what art truly is.

On a less serious note, this was uploaded with my iPod thanks to that new Copy Paste feature.

XXXXXX

The MBI chopper was circling around the city. The pilot inside was bored. For three days, the Director has had security tripled because of the escape of Sekirei Number 95 and her Ashikabi. Since then, MBI has taken every measure to make sure the event doesn't repeat itself. Since then, nothing had happened. The additional guards just stood on every bridge every day, checking cars and all other vehicles that were leaving to make sure those who were a part of the game stayed in it. For extra, and redundant, measure they had also issued tanks and choppers to patrol everything else.

The pilot was getting lost in his thoughts, when suddenly the alarms inside the chopper began wailing. He looked frantically at what was causing them to go off. The outer scanner told him that something heavy was on the tail of the helicopter. Them it disappeared for a split second, and then the security system said it was now hanging on the cockpit door. Completely confused by the readings, the pilot looked to his left to see what could possibly be on his chopper, and he screamed out. There was a man in a hoodie and leather jacket gripping the door. After straining for a few seconds, the door was ripped off of the hinges. The man threw the door down to the distant ground, and then grabbed the pilot.

"I'll take this if you don't mind," the man said to the pilot, who couldn't understand since it was spoken in English. The man then grabbed the pilot, and tossed him out of the chopper and into the air. He then climbed into the now empty seat, and began controlling the military helicopter as if it were no more than a toy. He had learned all he needed to know about flying back in Manhattan. The soldiers were very well trained. And they didn't put up much of a fight.

Alex Mercer began roaming the city in his stolen chopper, searching for a location that would suffice as both a base and a safe house. Suddenly, the radio of the helicopter exploded into a fit of yells. Alex couldn't understand them, but knew what they were saying. They wanted to know what the hell had happened to their chopper. Realizing he had no chance of communicating with them, Alex simply drove his fist into the dashboard.

He then slapped his hand onto his forehead. "I should have consumed the pilot, and learned how to speak the language."

He figured that if this military was anything like Blackwatch, they would most probably shoot him out of the sky. That would be a problem. He didn't want the word that project Zeus was still alive and loose spreading. He climbed up to the huge gap in the hull, and threw himself out. He landed not so gracefully on a nearby rooftop, and watched as the helicopter lost control and plummeted into the water. He looked back over to the huge city in front of him, observing the buildings and horizon. In the middle of the metropolis, he saw a huge skyscraper that towered over the rest of the buildings.

"That must be their base," Alex said to himself. He made a mental note to steer clear of the tower for now. "Looks like I'm going on foot."

XXXXXX

Director Minaka watched the recording of the hijacking that had only happened minutes ago. He was fixated on the screen as the pilot dully patrolled the outer city, and then a man in a leather jacket grabbed onto the door, tore it off, and then tossed the pilot out of the huge hole he had just made. The recording ended when the hijacker put his arm through the controls.

"No man can just jump onto an airborne helicopter, rip the door off, and then fly it perfectly," he said mostly to himself. "So then there is only one explaination: he isn't human."

"On that we can agree," head researcher Takami said as she lit a cigarette. "Oh, and if it's of any concern to you, the pilot is dead."

"Of course he's dead," Minaka said with an insane excitedness. "He was thrown out of a helicopter a quarter of a mile above the city!"

"The coroners say they found a strange black ooze on his helmet," Takami said to him, mostly because it was so unusual to her.

"It could simply be his blood," Minaka suggested, still fixated on the video before him. He finally broke his gaze to activate his comlink on his desk. "Send Karasuba out onto the city. I'd like her to get to know someone."

XXXXXX

Alex leapt from rooftop to rooftop, learning the lay of the the land and searching for a safe haven. So far, everything was densely crowded. He needed an abandoned warehouse or hospital preferably. Someplace large and empty. After twenty minutes, he still had no luck nor made any progress whatsoever. Finally, he forced himself to a stop on a random rooftop. He looked back at the distant tower. No matter where he went, the tower wouldn't escape his vision. That was extremely haunting to him. Shaking his head to clear it, he turned his head and observed the rest of the city, looking for a slum or even small quarantine. Nothing acceptable presented itself to him. He slowly began to lose his already short temper, when he had the sudden feeling that he was no longer alone. He slowly turned around to see that his suspicions were true. Standing before him was a silver-haired woman with a black shirt and skirt, and a grey coat draped over her shoulders. She was grinning at him. He didn't return it. They stared at each other in silence, both wondering what the other was going to do.

Alex finally broke the silence. "What do you want?"

She didn't answer or give any response at all. She kept grinning at him, and unsheathed the sword fastened to her hip.

Alex put on a grin of he own. "Let me tell and warn you right now: that is a bad idea."

She didn't heed his warning, most likely because she couldn't understand it. She charged at him faster than any enemy he had ever killed. He felt a jolt in his stomach, and looked down to see that the most probably insane woman had buried her sword into him. She kept her grin as she pulled her weapon out of him. She looked at him, as if expecting him to say something. He looked at her and gave her a smirk.

As Karasuba waited for her target to drop dead, he just stood there with a smug look. He pointed to the spot in his body where she had stabbed him. She looked down, and saw a strange red and black ooze seeping over the hole. It slowly built up and hardened, and when the wound was gone, it changed color to match the clothes that were directly over it. It was as if she had never even gotten near him. As she stood there in awe, he capitalized on the moment, and ran over to her with the same speed she possessed. He grabbed her left forearm. He grinned at her, and then reared his arm back, and threw her as hard as he could. She went flying. She gliding in the air for about ten seconds before finally crashing into the side of a building, and going right through it. She laid there, staring straight up, completely amazed by what had just happened. Nobody had ever touched her and lived to tell about it.

XXXXXX

"Amazing! Truly amazing!" Minaka jumped up and down with joy as he watched Karasuba attack the mysterious man all to no avail, and then get thrown like a rag doll. "I believe we have stumbled upon a rogue Sekirei!"

"Are you completely insane?" Takami asked. She held a folder in her hand. "He is NOT a Sekirei."

"Of course he is," Minaka happily shot back. "What else could he be?"

Takami put a smug grin on her face. "Do you really want to know?"

"Why ruin the surprise?" He walked past her and exited his office. Takami sighed deeply and lit another cigarette. She walked over to the monitors and watched Karasuba be completely humiliated. She fast forwarded until the screen showed a picture of the victor's face. She stared at it intently.

"Well Mercer, looks like you have gotten yourself into another massive scale mess." She opened the folder in her hand, and again looked at secret documents of the army Blackwatch, and a picture of Project Zeus as they called him; a living, breathing, intelligent virus that was just below omnipotent.

XXXXXX

Alex stood like a statue in the shadows of an alley. He waited for the perfect opportunity to consume any random bystander, and take both their image, and their intelligence. After nearly a halfhour of watching scores of people pass by, he finally saw one that was alone in the late evening. The middle aged man was wearing a light jacket, jeans, and white shoes, but most importantly, no one was around to see him vanish. As the man walked past the alley where he was hiding, Alex emerged and began to silently persue his pray. After tailing him for half the block, Alex finally got right behind him. In less than a second, Alex put his hand over the man's mouth as to stop him from screaming and bringing unwanted attention to them, and then drove his arm into the man's back as if it were warm butter. As Alex let his arm rest inside the man's chest, he felt him consuming his prey. Slowly, black ooze covered the man, and then began dissolving both itself and the man, and retreated back into the biomass being that was Alex Mercer. After all the ooze was back together with him, he saw everything his victim had ever seen, heard, smelled, touched, and tasted. The man had lead a lonely and wasted life. Alex didn't learn anything interesting from this prey, but at least he was fluent in Japanese tongue. Since no witnesses were around, he didn't bother taking the form of his now consumed prey. He didn't feel stronger, but a decent amount of energy was now in him. Taking one quick look around to make sure nobody was around, he found none, and ran towards the building across the street from him. As he gained speed, he tilted his weight to the back of him and leaned backwards. When he got extremely close to the wall, he did a small jump, and his feet landed on the wall, and he began running up the side of the building. When he reached the top, he launched himself into the air, and gracefully landed on the roof. It felt good to burn off excess energy. Little did Alex know that he was being watched.

XXXXXX

Benitsubasa and Haihane observed the man who had somehow bested Karasuba in a fight run up the side of the building from a distant roof top. They had been told how he had healed almost instantaneously, and thrown her far into the horizon.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Haihane asked her ever battle-ready Squad member. She didn't like the looks of the guy. Especially since he managed to beat their leader within a minute of meeting her.

"Of course it is!" Benitsubasa said to her with a mixture of confidence and irritation. "This freak needs to learn what happens to those who mess with the Discipline Squad."

"So he's going to humiliate us and get away with anything he plans on doing?" Haihane sarcastically asked. She put a small grin on her face as Benitsubasa grew even more angry.

"NO!" The pink-haired Sekirei screamed. She then put her hands over her mouth, praying that the freakish man hadn't heard her. "He's going to suffer more than he could imagine. Let's go."

As she leapt off, Haihane hesitated to follow her. "Why do I get the feeling we are going to regret this?" The clawed Sekiriei then reluctantly followed her partner.

XXXXXX

Mercer jumped effortlessly hundreds of feet in the air, going from roof to roof in a speed that no other living being could match. Or so he thought. He again got the uneasy feeling that his presence contained outsiders. Whilst still leaping across the sky, he turned his head and neck back to see two people doing an actually decent job of keeping up with him. Seeing that losing them would take too long and take too much effort to get it done for his tastes, he landed on a roof, and skidded to a stop. He turned and saw that the two followers were just landing on the same building.

"Oh, you have got to kidding," he muttered under his breath. He saw that his pursuers were two women, and neither of them looked like they could be older than twenty. One had long pink hair clipped to one side, and had on a black kimono with a red bow on her hip. She also wore fighting gloves on both of her hands. The other one was way more freakier. She had long silver hair, and a bang covered half of her face. She was covered completely in bandages, and the only thing she was wearing besides her wrappings was a tattered black kimono. She had on huge clawed metal gauntlets on both her arms.

Alex found himself to be amused by them. If a secret army, futuristic weaponry, a poison designed and made especially for him, hordes of monsters, and a nuclear blast couldn't stop him, what chance did the two of them stand? Using his newfound fluency of the native tongue, he called out to them. "Are you two lost or something?"

The pink headed one laughed out. "Not at all! We're here to teach you a lesson you won't soon forget! Nobody messes with the Discipline Squad!" She spoke with overflowing confidence.

"That's right!" The silver-haired added. Her voice lacked the confidence the other one had. But to make up for it, she thrusted her arms forward, and fanned out her clawed hands.

Eying her gauntlets, Alex decided to teach them a lesson of their own. He mentally told his arms to prepare themselves.

"Nice claws." He spoke with a somewhat indifferent tone. The two women stared at him, and then jumped back in shock. A red and black goop was coating his arms. As more and more covered the previous layer, they slowly hardened, until his arms were black with red blots and streaks and were covered with small spikes. The ooze on his hands melted away, and revealed that his fingers had become razor-sharp claws that were as long as a short sword. He smiled at them hauntingly, and raised his spiked arms over his head, and then thrusted them forward, down, and backwards. His claws sliced through the roof as if it were water, and left ten lines carved into the hard material, all while making red and orange sparks fly as he dragged them along. He hoisted his now kneeling body back up into a stance that said he was ready to kill. "Why don't we sharpen each other's?"


	2. Enlightenment

Tsukiumi and Musubi were having their almost daily shopping race to earn the privilege to sit next to their Ashikabi and 'Husband' during dinner that evening. Tsukiumi was falling behind as usual, but her pride didn't allow her to quit. While she was racing across the rooftops, she suddenly heard the familiar sounds of a fight happening not to far from her. Her curiosity took over, and she headed towards the cries of battle. She leaped onto a higher roof, and gasped at what she saw. The two cowardly Discipline Squad members who almost killed her and her friends were fighting... Something.

"Who is that man?" she asked herself. His hood prevented her from seeing his entire face. "He doesn't look like any Sekirei I've ever seen, but he can hold his own against two members of the Discipline Squad; he clearly isn't human.". She continued to watch the ensuing battle.

XXXXXX

Benitsubasa was shocked by how powerful their opponent was. Every time either she or Haihane managed to land a blow on him, he would heal and hit them twice as hard. His claws were deadlier than Haihane's, and twice as threatening. She attempted to strike with her left claw, but Mercer caught it in his armored fist and lifted her up and threw her down into the solid roof, creating a small crater. Benitsubasa then tried to leap at him and deliver a bone shattering punch. Just as she was about to make contact, he held his arm infront of him, and a black shield materialized on his forearm. When she punched it, the shock of the impact left her frozen in midair for a second, which was long enough for Mercer to capitalize. While she was suspended in the air, he drew back his free clawed arm, and scraped her across her midsection.

She had to bite her tongue so she wouldn't let out a scream of pure agony. She held her stomach right with both of her arms, and felt her blood flooding out of her and over her hands. While she struggled to stay conscious, Haihane came at Alex with deadly speed. He was too busy being shocked that the handy work he had done on Benitsubasa hadn't sliced her in half to notice the Reaper Sekirei in time. She scraped his left arm, but the spiked layers of hardened ooze were too thick to do any actual damage. She began to swing her clawed arms at him rapidly, hoping to do some damage. Every time she tried to strike, Alex would either dodge or hold up his armored limbs to block her assault. He waited for the perfect form of attack, and seized the moment he was waiting for. She leapt towards him with her right arm fanned out in front of her, and right when she about to bury her claws into us neck, he sidestepped away from her, and grasped her attacking arm at the wrist with his own right hand. While holding an unbreakable grasp on her arm, he raised his left hand, fanned out the sword-like claws, and swung down as fast and hard as he could.

Haihane couldn't hold back her agonizing scream.

She staggered back, holding onto the stub below her elbow where her forearm and hand used to be. She was almost blinded by the pain. She gathered enough strength to look over to the being who had amputated her. He kept a straight face beneath his hood, but waved her disembodied limb mockingly at her for a second, and then tossed it aside. He then slowly began walking towards them.

"So that lesson you were going to teach me," he said. "Was it about how to go on a suicide run?" The two Sekirei looked in horror at the almost god-like monster advancing towards them. With half their blood gone, the two Discipline Squad members mustered up all the strength they had left to jump as far away from him as they could, and return to the tower before they died. Their silent prayers that he wouldn't follow them were answered.

Alex stood his ground, watching the two women leap off into the sunset. He was regretful that he hadn't consumed one of them, since they were formidable foes, and survived a fight with him. He looked down at the limbed he had clawed off, and kicked it aside as he jumped off the building and into a deserted park, creating a crater at his feet when landed. The battle had been short, but was incredibly fast-paced and intense. He need to feed. Before he even got the chance to begin walking, he knew he wasn't alone.

"Can't a living weapon get some peace?" He mumbled under his breath as he turned to see a woman with extremely long blonde hair standing beside him. She had on a long black jacket, a short white skirt, knee-high brown boots, and her face had a look of both irritation and appreciation. Her are were crossed over her massive chest.

"I saw the entire fight you were in back there," she said to him."

"If you're planning on attacking..." Mercer raised one of his arms so that the still-clawed hand was in front of his face. He fanned out the fingers so that the blonde could see his face in between the lines they made. "You'll end up worse than the other two."

Much to his amazement, the woman didn't back away in fear. "I do not wish to fight you. In fact, I wish to offer you my gratitude." He raised an incredibly confused eyebrow. "Those two cowards almost took the lives of me, my friends, and my husband. They are arrogant cowards, and you did what needed to be done. You taught them a lesson." She have him an approving smile.

Seeing as he need to consume, and this woman wasn't running away, Alex made a swift decision. "Well thanks for your appreciation, but I have something else to get done." Without warning or pausing, Mercer thruster the hand that was in front of his face forward and into the stomach of the woman. She let out a gasp of pain and surprise, and Alex began to consume her. But after not even a half of a second, he pulled his weaponized limb out of his would-be meal. The one instant he fed on the woman, he was filled with so much energy, he felt like a nuclear reactor. And her mind showed him an extremely interesting fact about her.

"Sekirei," he said both to himself and the woman, who was now clenching the vast wound he had made on her. "So I'm not the only inhuman thing around here." He looked over to his victim, and she looked over at him. While he was filled past the brim with energy and power, it was obvious that he had drained her. He then looked over to his arm, and saw that it was drenched in water. "What the..." He shrugged it off and turned back to the paling blonde Sekirei. "Thank you for the... Enlightenment." He ran off and became a blur, and was completely gone in under a second.

XXXXXX

"This truly cannot get any better!" Minaka shouted with glee. He had just watched the Rogue Sekirei, as what he called Mercer, take down and dismember the rest of the Discipline Squad, and then almost murder a single number.

"I think you mean worse," Takami said. "Mercer is dangerous and almost unstoppable."

"Seeing as he just nearly annihilated the Discipline Squad and a single number, I now see he as completely unstoppable!" Minaka had an insane look in his eyes. An even more insane idea popped into his head. He pulled out his phone and began typing a message to be sent to all the Ashikabis in the Sekirei Plan.

XXXXXX

'Attention all Ashikabis, there is an extremely special person running lose in the city. He possesses the power to take down even the strongest of the Sekirei. Since I find him vastly interesting, and to a lesser extent entertaining, I am going to allow anyone who can convince him to aid you, use him and his power to assist you in the game without consequence. But I would hurry. That sort of power draws attention rather quickly. His picture is attached to this message. Happy hunting. Oh, and he responds to the name Alex Mercer.'

Hayato Mikogami read the text that was sent to him from MBI. And he instantly gathered three of his Sekirei and went out hunting.

"Just imagine it, Mutsu," the greedy boy said to one of his most valuable and strong Sekirei. "With that sort of firepower watching our backs, there is no way we can lose!"

The sword-wielding Sekirei said nothing, and just continued staring out the window of the limousine. He thought that this was an extremely bad idea, but didn't bother saying anything since any attempt to change his incredibly stubborn Ashikabi's mind would be less than fruitless.

"Well I think it's a perfect idea!" Mikogami's other Sekirei Taki said when Mutsu failed to answer.

"Thank you Taki," Mikogami said to her. He then turned his attention to the Broken Ice Sekirei. "Why so glum Akitsu? Think about it, another non-Sekirei. You'll finally have someone you can relate to!" The pompous teen didn't give any second thoughts when he insulted her. She would never leave the Master she served. "Then again, once Mercer's with us, I probably won't need you anymore!" He laughed at his callous disregard for the stoic auburn-haired woman. Outside, she showed no reaction whatsoever, but inside, she felt as if she was going to be thrown away again. She then silently decided that she would always top Mercer in everything they did while in each other's presence.

"There he is," Mutsu said in a bored voice.

Mikogami scrambled over to the window his Sekirei was looking out of, and saw a familiar leather jacket and hoodie. "Driver, STOP!"

Alex heard a screeching noise behind him, but paid no mind to it. He continued walking down the dark sidewalk, piecing together what he could. So far, the blonde's memories told him that Sekirei were aliens, and were super powered beings with the form of humans. The only differences between himself and the alien race was that he could change his appearance at will, and didn't need to have somebody help him reach his peak.

Suddenly, a young-sounding voice called out behind him. "Mercer?"

"Go to Hell," he called back without bothering to stop or even turn his head to see who it was.

"Well," Mikogami said to his Sekirei as they climbed out of the vehicle. "It looks like he needs a little persuasion."

Alex continued his aimless walk, thinking deeply, when suddenly, a man appeared out of nowhere right in front of him. He had on a dark jacket and an orange scarf. And he was holding a sword.

Looking at the weapon, Alex again covered his arms with the spiked armor and made his sword-like claws replace his fingers. "If you want to keep your head, I suggest you get out of my way."

"And I suggest that if you want to keep yours," the man replied. "You should turn around and listen."

Alex decided to humor the stranger, and did what was recommended of him. He saw a boy who looked like he could barely be old enough to drive, and on either side of him was a woman. One had long purplish silver hair and a white dress. The other had somewhat short light brown hair, and what Mercer had found out to be the symbol of the Sekirei on her forehead. She had on a white kimono, and chains wrapped around her neck and down her exposed cleavage. She had a constant look of boredom.

The child spoke up. "I would like to make you an offer." Alex said nothing, so Mikogami went on. "You see, you can now be used in the Sekirei Plan as an ally and a weapon."

"Okay, I can see where this is going," Alex said. "Just tell me this: why would I ever help you?"

"Because refusing my offers generally isn't a good idea," he said with a smirk.

"Try me." Alex didn't know what the foolish boy had up his sleeve, but he knew it would never be enough to take him down.

"Akitsu, Taki..." He smiled as the area around them suddenly got covered in a very thick fog.

"Is that the best you can do?" Alex asked in an almost amused tone. His smirk disappeared when he suddenly felt extremely cold. He looked down and saw that his legs were being covered with solid ice. The freezing process continued until everything below his chest was encased in ice. The three Sekirei and the boy stood around him in a circle. The male Sekirei was behind him with his sword drawn, the two women stood on opposite sides of him, and the idiotic boy stood in front of him, smirking like an idiot.

"I see your point," Alex said to the teen before him. He was even going to bother showing strains of trying to escape. "Now let me offer this as a rebuttal." Instantly, hundreds of sharp, thick tendrils sprang out of his body in every direction, except right in front of him. Alex could feel the tentacles coming out of him, and impaling the three Sekirei. With his icy prison long since shattered, Alex stepped towards the boy, who was in complete shock. Before he could react, Alex grasped the teen by his chest and lifted him up into the air.

Mikogami looked down at the straight-faced man with pure terror. "Can't we talk about this?" He asked in a frightened and desperate voice.

"No," Alex said dryly. He then placed his free claw on top of the foolish Ashikabi's head, and prepared to crush his skull like a tin can, and consume him. But before he could kill his prey, he felt a cold jolt, and looked over to see an icicle the size of a javelin embedded in his right shoulder. He dropped the child, and pulled it out. He then turned around to see the stone-faced Sekirei looking at him intently.

"I will not allow you to harm my Master in anyway," she said in a bored voice.

Alex then fanned out his claws. "I'm going to slice you to bits, and then consume every last piece." He tensed up his legs, and them charged towards the monotonous Sekirei, ready to kill her.


	3. Zeus And The Ice Maiden

Alex charged at his opponent, the Ice Sekirei called Akitsu. Right when he made a run towards her, she formed a myriad of small icicles, and sent them flying towards him like darts. Some struck him, but he didn't pay any mind to them. After all, he had been shot at by tanks. Others either missed, or were deflected by his outstretched claws. She didn't slow him down at all, and he was on her in a matter of seconds. Right when he was about to run into her head-on, he slashed his left arm across the space in front of him, hoping to slice her in half; but before he could cut her flesh, she formed a wall of ice beside her to stop his lethal hands from cutting her to ribbons. Right when Alex's claw struck the ice wall, it shattered into tiny pieces, and Akitsu jumped back to avoid a possible counter attack from his other arm, and sent another arsenal of icy spears his way. Seeing them coming at him, Alex then began altering his right arm. After the black ooze formed several layers and hardened, his arm below his elbow was now a double-ended blade that was at least six feet long.

XXXXXX

A/N: The blade weapon is almost impossible to describe. If you want to see exactly what it looks like, just image search Alex Mercer Blade.

XXXXXX

With he massive and deadly blade ready, Mercer charged toward Akitsu again, faster than last time. He put the weapon in front of him, and it was big and wide enough to block the majority of the icicles flying at him. Akitsu saw that he was closing in on her at full throttle, and summoned another ice wall in front of her to block his path. She jumped back again, and watched him smash through her barricade without losing any momentum whatsoever. Growing desperate, Akitsu formed yet another wall of ice. She figured he would eventually fatigue. She was losing hope as he once again smashed through her defenses like paper. He was closing in on her, and she wasn't a close-range fighter, and his claw and blade could slice her into slurry in seconds if he got close enough. Wanting to protect her master from any further harm, she decided to flee the park, knowing he would follow her.

She jumped across the rooftops with Mercer in hot pursuit. She was almost as fast as he was. Mercer saw that actually catching her would take a very long time, and made his blade transform into the best long-range weapon he had: his whipfist.

XXXXXX

A/N: Again, another ability of Alex's that is incredibly hard to describe.

XXXXXX

He continued his pursuit of Akitsu across the roofs, and kept an eye on her movements. After finding a steady pattern in her jumping times, he reared his right arm back, and then thrusted it forward. The part of his arm that was his hand shot forward toward her, making it seem as though his right arm could willingly grow two hundred feet. His aim and timing was a little off. Instead of impaling her like he intended, he merely scraped her side, and the head of his spear embedded itself into the roof he had aimed towards. Ever the fast thinker, Mercer willed his long arm to retract, and pulled himself forward, gaining even more speed than what he had. He took off like a rocket, slowly but surely closing the distance between them. He took his second shot when she about to take off into the air again. He thrusted his arm forward, and sent his spiked hand flying towards her. This time he was right on target. The whipfist went right through the middle of her back. Rather than making her come to him, Alex decided to retract his arm by making himself fly towards her. As he closed in on her in the air, he forced his body to tilt backwards, and when they connected, his feet pounded into her spine. The duo lost their forward momentum, and began falling to the street below.

XXXXXX

Minato and his two Sekirei Musubi and Kusano were waiting outside of the wall of Maison Izumo for Tsukiumi. It had been the better glad of an hour since Musubi had won the race, and yet the tsundere blonde had not yet returned.

"I'm starting to get really worked about her," he said to the two Sekirei.

"Should we go out and look for her?" Musubi asked.

Before Minato could answer, Kusano pointed towards the sky. "Onii-chan, look!"

All three of them looked up to where the Green Girl was pointing, and saw Tsukiumi land in front of them. It didn't take long for them to notice that she was in horrible shape. She looked as if she hadn't slept in a week, and there was blood flowing out of her stomach area like a small waterfall. She looked at them, and tried to form words, but instead she began to collapse.

Her 'husband' ran over and caught her in his arms before she hit the ground. She found that she really liked being held by him.

He looked over her with extreme worry. "Tsukiumi, what happened?"

Before she could speak, a huge crash emitted not one hundred feet away from them in the middle of the street.

As the dust settled, Tsukiumi answered the question. "HE happened," she said weakly.

XXXXXX

Alex found himself inside a small crater the impact had made. He looked down, and saw that he was still standing on the back of Akitsu. He stepped off of her, and looked down at her unmoving body. He could tell she was still alive.

"Get up," he demanded. When she didn't move, he stomped on her head. "GET UP!"

She slowly forced herself up into an unsteady standing position.

"I want to see the light leave your eyes when I end you," Mercer said. He made his whipfist reform back into claws, since she wouldn't be running away again.

Akitsu finally regathered her wits, and used some of the little power she had left to put up another ice wall between them, hoping to buy herself sometime to come up with a new strategy. That hope was dashed away as Mercer slashed at the makeshift barricade almost effortlessly, and made it shatter. Akitsu began walking backwards, creating more and more obstacles in front of her. Alex walked forwards towards her, breaking said obstacles with ease. Every time Akitsu created an ice wall, Mercer would simply destroy it, closing the gap between them. After destroying around the eighth wall, Mercer was close enough to her, and slashed at her race with his right hand, and cut open her left cheek. While she tried to put a layer of ice over her new wounds, Mercer took advantage, and used his left claw to uppercut her into her stomach. She gasped out in pain. Mercer's arm was so deep in her, his claws could be seen coming out of her back.

She looked at him, and for the first time Alex say emotion in her eyes; he saw fear. Akitsu tried to form words, but all her strength had left her.

"Hey!" Alex turned his head to see who had yelled at him. He was met with a dark haired teen, a little girl, a brunette, and the blonde Sekirei he had met earlier. The boy shouted at him again. "You can't just kill her!"

In response, Alex raised the arm that wasn't impaling Akitsu up behind his head like he was about to throw a baseball.

"Watch me." He thrusted his arm forward, and buried all four claws into the Ice Sekirei's head. One went through the symbol on her forehead, one was in each eye socket, and the last one had gone clear through her mouth. While basking in his work, Alex turned to see the reactions of his audience. The brunette girl had her hands over her mouth and had tears in her eyes. The dark haired boy looked like he was going to be sick and was shielding the little girl's eyes. The blonde one still had a look of intense pain. None of their expressions changed at all while they watched Mercer slowly consume Akitsu.

By the time the ice Sekirei was completely gone, Alex was filled with so much power and energy, he literally smoked for a minute. Unlike his first meal, Akitsu had revealed to him many things of usefulness. He made a mental note to consume Director Minaka whenever he could. The man was in charge and held all the cards in the Sekirei Plan. Alex couldn't help but notice that he felt incredibly cold, and shivered for a moment.

"The power you Sekirei possess is impressive," he said as he turned to the foursome. "But now onto the matter of finishing what I started." He turned his attention back to the blonde Sekirei.


	4. Maison Versus Mercer

"I can't say whether or not it will hurt," Mercer said to Tsukiumi as he scraped his individual claws against each other, making sparks fly off of them. "But I do know it doesn't last long."

The tsundere Sekirei struggled to pick herself up. She clenched her right hand into a fist, and a sword of water formed around her hand. "That is a pleasure you will never experience, you monster!"

"It's Mercer," he said dryly. Rather than replying to his insult, Tsukiumi raised her water blade and charged towards him. It was clear that she wasn't even at half her strength. She got close to him, and swung her sword at him. He caught it in his left palm without effort. "Pathetic."

He saw that she had a look of both shock and terror, but she wasn't looking at him; she was staring at her caught arm. Alex's curiosity kicked in, and he looked at it too, and saw that her water sword had been completely frozen.

"This is interesting," he said. He then placed his free hand on her stomach, and gently shoved her away, sending her back about twenty feet, landing on her back. Mercer looked over his claw that had caught the aqua blade. "It seems you are more useful that I originally thought, Akitsu." He then walked over to the now downed Water Sekirei, ready to go in for the kill. He had not taken three steps before the dark-haired teen, whom Alex came to conclude was her Ashikabi, stepped in fromt of him. Alex silently thanked Akitsu for showing him the Sekirei Plan and the rules in its entirety.

"I don't know who or WHAT you are," the boy said to him. "But I will NOT just stand by and let you hurt Tsukiumi!"

"I think you already know who I am, kid. And I am what ever I choose to be. Now please get out of my way."

"Why? So you can murder Tsukiumi in cold blood like you did Akitsu?" Minato's voice was slowly growing in both anger and fear.

"I did her a favor," Mercer replied. "She wished for death for most of her life."

"And what makes you think THAT?"

"Easy. I consumed her. I saw everything she ever saw, and all her memories are now in my mind. It also seems I can do what she could as well. And thanks to one of my favorite things about myself..." Minato watched as Mercer was slowly covered by a thick black liquid, and then began to change shape. When the ooze melted away, Minato took a step back in shock. He was now looking at Akitsu.

"I can even BE her," the stoic Sekirei said in her own voice. The one thing that made Minato positive that he was staring at an illusion was that the normally emotionless woman smirked at him. She then transformed back into Mercer.

"What..." Minato was trying with all his will not to go into a catatonic state. "What ARE you?"

Alex reached out and grabbed him by the neck tightly enough to have a grip that couldn't be broken, but didn't choke the teen either, and lifted him into the air. "I'm someone who also fought for a lost cause once." He made his free arm became clawed again, and he prepared to gut the Ashikabi like a fish. But before he could thrust his claw forward, he felt something holding onto it. He looked over and saw the brunette girl looking sternly at him.

"I don't care if what Minato's message said about you is true. I won't let you bring any harm or pain to him."

Alex couldn't help but smirk at her. "And just how do you intend to stop me?"

"Like this." She wrenched his arm back, and Alex let out a sound that was a combination of a scream and a gasp as he let go of Minato. She had actually made him feel a slight sensation of agony. "And like THIS!" She clenched her free hand into a fist, and punched him hard in the chest. He went flying, sliding and skidding on the road until finally he came to a rolling stop. He shook his head for a moment due to dizziness. He looked over and saw that her punch had sent him at least three hundred feet away from them. He stood up, and grinned while he made his arms into their lethal claws. He had finally found an opponent who could probably hold their own against him. He began running towards her, and she also charged in.

XXXXXX

As Minato stood back and prayed that Musubi would have better luck with Alex than Tsukiumi did, his phone began ringing.

"Is this important?" He desperately asked without daring to pry his eyes away from Musubi and Mercer as they began attacking each other.

"Minato! This is BEYOND bad!" Matsu shrieked. "You have got to get Musubi, Tsukiumi and Ku away from that THING right NOW!"

"Thing? You mean Mercer?"

"Yes Mercer! None of us stand a chance against him! He almost brought a city to its knees singlehandedly! Minato, I think he's only toying with Musubi right now."

Hearing this theory, Minato tuned back into the fight, and hoped Matsu was wrong.

XXXXXX

Musubi struggled to keep herself away from being torn apart. Her clothes were tattered, and she was covered in small scrapes and cuts. Alex had no visible damage on him, and the intense battle did fatigue him at all thanks to Akitsu. He stomped on the ground with tremendous strength and caused a tremor, which resulted in Musubi losing her balance. She landed on her back and saw Mercer jump into the air over her and put one of his claws in front of him. Before he could impale her, Musubi rolled out of his way as he landed, and saw that his strength had betrayed him. As he struggled to free his clawed fingers from the ground, she kicked him in the side of his ribcage and sent him flying into and clear through the wall surrounding Maison Izumo. He picked himself up and staggered over to the hole he had made, and saw Musubi looking intently at him in a fighting stance.

"Not bad," he said to her. "But I got a few tricks of my own!" His right arm became his whipfist, and he launched it at Musubi, who sidestepped out of its way, and grabbed it.

"Bad move," Mercer said with a grin. He then willed his extended arm to retract to normal length, while Musubi still had a grasp on it. As she came flying towards him, Alex balled up his clawed hand into the closest thing to a fist it could.

He timed the punch perfectly, and sent Musubi flying. Much like he did earlier, she came to a rolling stop in the middle of the road. As she struggled to stay conscious and failed, Alex jumped through the hole and out onto the street. He reared his whip-wielding arm back, and prepared to launch it into the Sekirei's neck. Before he could take action, a vine as thick as a hundred year old tree sprang out in front of him, making him jump back in surprise. He watched as more and more plants grew at an impossible rate around him, slowly encasing him.

"Another one," he said to himself. He prepared his whipfist. "Maybe I can KILL this one without INTERRUPTIONS!" He put all his energy into the whip, and slashed in a lethal 360 degree arc, cutting down his would-be prison. He jumped over to the one who had tried to entomb him, and raised his clawed arm into the air. When he landed, he froze in shock. Sitting down with his back against the stone wall was the dark-haired Ashikabi, and hugging him fearfully was the little blonde girl. Mercer silently asked himself the question if she was also a sekirei, which he already knew the answer to.

"Onii-chan, I couldn't stop him," the little girl said. She looked up to Alex's raised claw, and let tears roll down her face. "I'm scared."

"It's okay Ku," Minato said to her as he put his arms around her protectively. He looked up to Mercer with tears of his own. "Please. If you have any sense of right and wrong... If you have any FEELINGS..."

Alex Mercer just stood above them with his lethal claw still in the air, ready to kill if told to do so.


	5. Know Your Target

It had been four days since Mercer had assaulted the Inn, and it was a moderate recovery for everyone. For some reason none of them could fathom, after staring intently at them for almost two minutes, Mercer walked away from Minato and Kusano without even scratching them. He then proceeded to grab Tsukiumi, and throw her through the wall, creating a second hole. Since that nightmarish evening, Minato had taken upon himself to care for his two Sekirei who were almost killed by Mercer. Musubi didn't mind the extra attention at all. Tsukiumi was an entirely different story. Rather than taking things slow, she insisted on training as long as she could as often as she could.

Minato was currently sitting on the back steps of the Inn, replacing some of the bandages on a sleeping Musubi's arm while also watching Tsukiumi practicing her fighting on targets that had been set up around the yard.

"Tsukiumi, why are you so insistent on training constantly now?" he asked her. She stopped attacking the targets, and turned to him.

"I need to make myself as strong and prepared as I can if I'm going to defeat Mercer."

He stopped wrapping Musubi's arm and looked at her with obvious shock and worry. "Please tell me you're not planning on going and looking for him."

She crossed her arms under her enormous chest. "That is exactly what I plan on doing. He needs to be put in his place."

He stood up and looked her right in her deep sea eyes. "Tsukiumi, I am begging you to stay out of his way. Please just leave him alone."

"Balderdash. I do not fear a slimy freak."

"Who had the opportunity to kill you," he pointed out. "TWICE."

"Nevertheless, the only that can take down a Sekirei is another Sekirei," she said with pride and confidence.

"I don't think that rule exists anymore..."

XXXXXX

Midnight...

Alex was digging through the file cabinets of head MBI Researcher Sahashi Takami. He had consumed an alpha clearance MBI soldier to get that far up in the tower. And he set forth on the task of turning every piece of paper in the room upside down, looking for any information he could to help him with his plan. So far, he had found nothing of use to him. And he was beginning to lose patience.

"God dammit," he grumbled under his breath. "Where are you?"

After finishing off all the cabinets, he made his way over to the desk in the middle of the room. Suddenly, the lights in the room came on and he spun towards the doorway to see a gray-haired woman with a scar under her eye.

"I was wondering when you'd show up here," she said to him in a calm voice. She didn't seem threatened by Alex at all. "But I figured you would start with the Director's office."

Mercer then began tearing apart the desk, looking at whatever was in it. "I thought YOU would have all the juicy information, and I was right."

She simply looked on as he dug around. "What do you think is stopping me from sounding the alarm and having armed and trained soldiers attack you?"

"Because if you did that, MBI would lose a lot of good men," he said nonchalantly without stopping his search.

She sighed. "Good point."

She flinched in fear as he noticed the picture frame on top of the bureau, and looked at it with interest.

"I think you and I were bound to meet sooner rather than later," he said without prying his eyes away from the photo.

"What makes you say that?" She lit herself a cigarette.

He finally looked over to her. "Well, I've only been in town a few days, and I've already had the chance to kill both of your kids."

She looked at him in total shock. She knew about the attack on her son's new home. But she hadn't been aware of Zeus being around Yukari.

"You're lying," she said to him.

He smirked at her. "Wanna bet?"

She glared at him, and he stared back. Neither of them looked away from the other until Takami made a decision.

"What are you looking for?" She knew from what she had read that Mercer was anything but a liar when he wasn't imitating one of his victims. He was dangerous, and all the intelligence he had gained from consuming had given him something of a photographic memory. If he found her children once, almost nothing could stop him from finding them again.

"Nothing much," he said, shaking his head.

"Let's make a deal," Takami said. "I'll give you whatever you're after no questions asked, in exchange for you making a promise, also no questions asked."

"Alright," Alex said. "But let's add something to it. I want your people to condemn a hospital for me so it can serve as my base, right now. And in exchange, I'll do all I can to help."

Takami raised an eyebrow at him. "Help with what?"

XXXXXX

Early the next morning, Alex was standing on the roof of the now empty hospital on the edge of the western part of the city as he looked over the metropolis. Everything he had demanded to be told about was now safely in his perfect memory, so step one, know your target, was complete. Now he simply had to find them. Or let them find him. Takami had told him that almost every Ashikabi in the entire Plan was looking for him, and one of them was bound to have one of his desired targets with them.

"Let's hit the town," he said to himself. He leaped off his base and into the city, ready to seize the day. He made his way towards the South part of the city, wanting to avoid the Northern section for the time being; he didn't need his new enemies getting in the way. Plus, he had scores to settle with the Ashikabi who ruled over that particular part anyway.

XXXXXX

Mikogami was riding around in his limousine with Mutsu. For days, they had wondered what had happened to Akitsu. Well, mostly Mutsu. Mikogami had lost interest in worrying about her after twelve hours.

"Just get over it," he said to Mutsu. "She was broken anyways."

Mutsu didn't say anything. He just silently resented his selfish and spoiled Ashikabi. He hated it how Mikogami saw Sekirei as nothing but fancy toys.

The vehicle suddenly came to a screeching hault.

"Why have we stopped, driver?!" Mikogami yelled in an obviously irritated voice. The driver didn't have to answer as Akitsu opened the back door and sat down across from the two men.

"Oh, you're alive," Mikogami said.

"I managed to get away," the stoic Sekirei said. "But every time I would attempt to return, he would somehow find and tail me."

"Well, it's nice to know you were thinking about someone besides yourself."

"Your welcome." She turned her head and looked out the window.

Mutsu then had an extremely uneasy feeling. Akitsu had remarked in a very small amount of sarcasm. In all the time he had known her, he had not once heard Akitsu say anything with any sort or form of emotion at all. She wasn't herself, in more ways than one. He unsheathed his sword and held it pointed at 'Akitsu'.

She turned her eyes and looked at the weapon threatening her. "Nice blade." Her right forearm and hand turned black, and formed into a long double-ended blade exactly like the one used by...

"Mercer," Mutsu stated.

"WHAT?!" Mikogami jumped back, trying to put as much distance between him, and the murderous living weapon.

"In the flesh," 'Akitsu' said as she turned black, and in a few seconds Mikogami and Mutsu found themselves looking at a hooded face one of them never wanted to see again.

XXXXXX

Uzume was leaping across the rooftops in a dark mood. She had just paid another visit to her dear Ashikabi, and Higa had another job for her. He wanted her to find a certain man who wasn't a Sekirei, but also wasn't human, and either convince him to side with Higa, or kill him so he wouldn't cause problems in the future. She was sickened by what she did, but she would do it over and over again to help Chiho. Suddenly, the sound of a fight too loud and fast paced to be between humans caught her ears. She looked down, and couldn't believe her eyes. In the street was a Sekirei fighting the man Higa wanted her to find. To be certain, she pulled out the picture he had given her, and saw that he had the same hoodie, jacket, and white shirt. She looked back to the battle, captivated by it.

XXXXXX

Mikogami was sitting in near shock a safe distance away while he watched Mutsu and Mercer fight to the bitter end. Mutsu quickly figured out that a direct attack wouldn't do anything. Mercer was FAST, and his blade was far more durable than Mutsu's own sword. Every time he would attempt to slash at him, Mercer would either block it with his Blade, or let himself get cut, and then heal instantly, and then counter with his left arm, which was now clawed.

"Dodge THIS!" Mutsu shouted as he drove his sword into the ground, and made the Earth shake. A few huge chunks of the street shot up into the air, and went flying towards Alex.

Mercer simply smirked, and avoided some of the projectiles, and which ever ones he didn't dodge were sliced in half by his Blade. Despite his expert level strategy, one of the chunks of Earth made it through his defenses, and struck him square in the stomach, and sent him onto his back.

"So you wanna fight with the ground, huh?" he said as he picked himself up and changed his right arm so that he now had both of his deadly claws at the ready. "Well what this!"

He gathered an incredible amount of energy. He grabbed his head as if he was suffering a migraine that was driving him insane. He then lifted his claws over his head and then drove both of them into the ground. Instantly, hordes of huge blackish-gray spikes shot out of the ground at completely random points and intervals. Mutsu literally had to trust his senses and instincts with his life as he barely dodged the deadly spikes. After about twenty seconds, the spikes stopped increasing in numbers, and slowly withdrew back below ground. They left no evidence that they were ever even there.

Mutsu stood in one place, panting and barely holding his sword. Mercer took advantage of his opponent's fatigue, and charged with his claws ready to slice and dice. Mutsu barely regained his wits, and deflected Mercer's claws away from him. His relief was short lived as Mercer than capitalized on Mutsu leaving his side open. Mercer then shot his right claw forward, and buried it in Mutsu's left side right into the bottom of his ribcage. The Sekirei let out a scream of fiery agony.

"Soon all you Sekirei shall hail..." Mercer began. He then jerked his arm to the side, and sliced open and eviscerated Mutsu, who then dropped to his knees, and weakly looked up to his Angel of Death. "... The God King."

Mercer finished off his foe by thrusting his left claw into the Sekirei's neck, and he then consumed him. Like before, Alex felt an immeasurable power flow through him. He then remembered that the brat Ashikabi was watching, and he made his way over to him.

"You..." Mikogami struggled to form words. "Y-you killed Mutsu."

"Just be glad it wasn't you." He then grabbed the kid, and reached into his pocket, and pulled out his cell phone. Mercer then let it get covered by the black ooze that seeped out of his hand, and let it sink into him. "I like to be informed of important things as soon as I can."

XXXXXX

Uzume was almost catatonic. The man she knew as Mercer had just killed a Single Number. If he could that, she was certain to be nothing of a threat. But she had to confront him for Chiho.

"I hope he's one to listen to offers," she said to herself. She made herself be covered in the rows of white cloth and made one conceal the majority of her face. She took in a deep and long breath, and jumped down to the street behind him.

XXXXXX

"Whatever it is," Mercer said. He had learned by now that every time he heard something landed behind him, it was a Sekirei asking for help. "The answer is NO."

"You forced me to do this," the woman behind him said. The next instant, he found that his right arm, which was now normal again, was wrapped and caught in a pure white cloth. He was glad with his descison. None of the Sekirei on his list had powers related to that sort of attack.

"Don't make me hurt you," he said. He made his arms get covered with their dark spikes again, instantly shredding the veil around his now clawed limb to ribbons. He turned around to face the Sekirei. She was covered with the same cloth that had his arm ensnared moments ago, and a line of it covered her face. "On second thought, even though you aren't one of the ones I'm looking for, I think I deserve to blow off some steam!" He prepared to charge at her, but then a strong gust of wind came from nowhere and it sent Alex flying backwards into a side of a building, and right through it.

Alex sat down in the rubble and dust, rubbing his somewhat sore head with his claw. "Where the Hell did that wind come from-" He stopped himself as a realization hit him. "WIND." A smile grew on his face as he picked himself up and walked out of the hole.

He looked over to the Veil Sekirei who was waiting for him. "Sorry to leave so soon, but I've got bigger things on my plate." He transformed his right arm into his Whipfist. "However, I don't like the idea of you following me."

The confusion on her face gave him the opening he needed. He launched his Whipfist at her, and sliced open her left leg clear to the bone. As she fell over and screamed in pain, Mercer jumped to the rooftops right above them.

He landed, and looked around to find that he was apparently all alone. But he knew he wasn't.

"What's the matter, Number Three?" he called out, constantly turning his body and vision in circles so he wouldn't be attacked by surprise. "Still down in the dumps about getting REJECTED?"

For once the Sekirei making his acquaintance appeared in front of him. She was wearing a purple silk dress that barely kept her modesty. She had long black hair, cherry red lips, and the largest bust Mercer had ever seen. If he was still human, he would have found her arousing, though he did admit to himself silently that she was rather attractive. He may have been a living virus made of biomass, but he still had the mind and consciousness of a grown man.

"Since you are not the Game Master, or Number One, I suppose you have to be taught a lesson for talking to me like that," she said in a cheerful tone.

"I'm not aiming for a lesson," Mercer replied, forming and fanning out his trusty claws.

XXXXXX

A/N: Whoo! It took me a few days to think of a good ending for this chapter, and I'm satisfied with it.

Also, Alex wasn't lying. He really did meet Yukari and Shiina. If any of you would like a little flashback of their first impressions of each other, simply say so with a review.

And lastly, I would like to thank WarmasterSamiel for leaving the idea to nickname Alex 'God-King'. Nice touch there, Samiel.


	6. A Change Of Heart

Kazehana and Mercer stared at each other in silence. She was curious as to what exactly he was, since he wasn't a Sekirei, and yet he was just as powerful as the Single Numbers and the Discipline Squad. He had a look of determination, anger, and... loneliness.

"So what exactly are you looking for?" she asked him.

"A lot of things," he said. "And you're one of them."

Kazehana wasn't surprised. Most men would kill to be around her. "And why is that?" she asked as she stepped closer to him and began walking around him in circles.

"Consumption," he said simply, staying wary of her.

"Ooo, feeling frisky," she said, not understanding the severity of the situation. She leaned on his shoulder, careful not to prod herself with one of his spikes. "So you're saying you want to eat me?"

He smirked at her. "Relatively speaking, yes." He put his opposite claw on her exposed shoulder, and began to 'eat her'.

Kazehana let out a cry of pain, and pushed herself away. She looked over, and saw that some of the skin on the arm he had touched was gone. She then looked back at him, and saw that he was looking at his claw with interest.

"Huh, so it DOES hurt," he said to himself. He then turned back to Kazehana, and slowly made his way toward her. "Don't worry. I'll take the time and trouble to tear your spine out so you don't feel a thing."

"In your dreams." She conjured up a gust of wind comparable to a small hurricane. Mercer was caught off guard by her instant retaliation and was blown away like a dead leaf. He landed far away in another random street. He quickly regained his wits, and prepared to chase after her before she got away. He leaped over the rooftops, and instantly saw her headed north. Mercer hesitated for a second on what to do. There were multiple Single Numbers in the northern section of the city, and since he wasn't a Sekirei, they could gang up on him. He wasn't worried about being defeated, just about how time consuming that fight would be. Then again, the Wind Sekirei was extremely powerful, and if he consumed her, he would definitely be lighter on his feet, and that could make him that much more stealthy and deadlier. He decided to pursue her, and satisfy his hunger. He leapt after her, forgetting completely about the nearly amputated Veiled Sekirei and the catatonic Mikogami.

**XXXXXX**

The residents of Maison Izumo had just finished a finely cooked breakfast provided by their landlady Miya. Suddenly, Minato heard a somewhat frantic knock on the door. He ran over to answer it, and was surprised by who he saw.

"Kazehana," he said. "It's nice to see you again."

Looking at the ronin, Kazehana remembered the night on the bridge when he had put his life in imminent danger to protect the ones he loved. He was so manly to her. "I can say the same about you, Minato." She let herself into the house.

"Well, Kazehana," Miya said to her. "I assume you have run out of alcohol once again, and need to 'borrow' from me?" A small demonic mask materialized behind her.

Even though she was frightened, Kazehana stood her ground. "Actually, I just wanted to see my old friends, and crash with them for a few days."

"Why?" Minato asked.

"Oh, some freak decided to attack me, and now I'm pretty sure he's out there looking for me. And since my place is on the opposite side of the city, there's a big chance he'll find me."

"Freak?" Minato repeated. An icy chill then traveled down his back. "Uh, Kazehana... Did he have on a leather jacket and a hood?"

She raised an eyebrow to him. "How did you know that?"

Minato then lost all the color he had in his face. "Oh no... OH NO!" He then slammed the door shut, and locked it. He didn't know why, since Mercer could smash the door to splinters with a flick of his wrist. Minato would bet his left arm that Kazehana hadn't given Mercer the slip, and that he was making a beeline towards the Inn. As he turned around and pressed his back on the door, all of his Sekirei gathered in the room in front of him. For some reason, he noticed that Uzume wasn't around.

"What's wrong, Minato?" Musubi asked with obvious confusion and worry.

He looked at all of them. Musubi, Tsukiumi, Matsu, Homura, and Kuu. He then looked over to Miya and Kazehana. Every single one of them were in grave danger.

He panted a few times before answering. "I'm fairly certain that Mercer is coming back here."

"Why would he do that?" Matsu asked with shock in her voice. In response, Minato slowly turned his head to Kazehana. All the others soon followed suit.

She shifted her vision between all of them quickly. "What?"

**XXXXXX**

Mercer was hot on the trail, when suddenly he felt something take a grasp on his leg, and he lost his momentum. After he landed with a thud, he looked back and saw that a familiar white cloth was wrapped around his left shin. He sliced it to ribbons with his Claw, and looked back on the rooftop to see the Veiled Sekirei. She could barely stand up. Mercer's anger took over, and he stomped over to the woman. He grabbed her by the neck, and hoisted her up into the air.

"Why must you get in my way!?" he screamed at her. "I'm fighting the urge to take my foot and crush your head in with it!"

"Please," she struggled to speak. "I need your help."

"And people in Hell want ice water."

"Please! At least hear me out!"

Alex decided to humor both himself and her. After all, he had lost Kazehana's trail. He put her down and crossed his arms. "You got thirty seconds before you become my breakfast."

She then proceeded to tell him all about her Ashikabi and her 'boss' Higa.

**XXXXXX**

She finished telling him all the details of her problem. She waited for a response as she stared at him, and he stared back.

After a long silence, Alex finally spoke up.

"Alright. I'll help you on the condition that you NEVER interfere with me and my plans EVER again!"

Tears of joy filled Uzume's eyes. "Thank you... Thank you!"

"Don't mention it. EVER."

**XXXXXX**

The two of them made their way up to the hospital doors. Once they were inside, they were instantly greeted by a man wearing a suit and glasses. Since Alex was now on HER side, Uzume didn't bother disguising her hatred of the man.

"Uzume," Kakizaki greeted. "I see that you have persuaded Mr. Mercer to put his services in Higa's favor?"

Alex made it clear that he was nobody's lackey by pointing his finger at the man, and forming his Claw on it so that the lethal tip was less than a centimeter from his face.

"I do what I want when I want," Alex said in a venomous tone.

Kakizaki looked at the small sword pricking his skin and sweated. "Understood."

Alex made his hand appear normal again, and followed Uzume as she led him to her Ashikabi. When they finally arrived outside her door, Uzume turned around and looked at Alex with complete seriousness.

"Please don't do anything to freak her out."

"Fine."

Seemingly satisfied with him, she slowly opened the door, and he began to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Uzume called out to him.

"I'm going to find your friend Higa," he called back.

Uzume sighed and shook her head, and then walked into the room.

**XXXXXX**

Kakizaki was standing outside the hospital's front doors, talking with Higa on his cell phone.

"Yes sir, he's here right now... I'm not sure why... Understood." He hung up the phone. "How long have you been standing there, Mr. Mercer?"

"Not long enough," he replied.

"So what can I do to help you?" Kakzaki asked as he turned around to face Alex. The second their eyes met, he found that Alex was almost choking him with an iron grip on his neck with his right hand.

"You can tell me where I can find your boss."

"I don't really think tha-" Kakizaki lost his ability to speak as Mercer slowly bent his neck close to the point of snapping it.

"That's not the answer I want," Alex said calmly.

**XXXXXX**

Higa was enjoying the view of the city from his penthouse, when suddenly a knock came on his door. He was somewhat surprised to see his secretary.

"Kakizaki, what are you doing here?"

"Oh yeah," he said as he looked down at himself. Higa watched as his secretary was covered with a black slime, and then changed shape. Higa then found himself looking at the man who could either be his greatest asset or worst enemy.

"So I take it you killed Kakizaki, Mercer?" Higa didn't let his immense fear show. He didn't want to look weak and give Mercer an edge to use.

"Yes. And rather than waste my valuable time on worthless garbage like you..." Like Kakizaki before him Higa had Mercer's arm squeezing his neck. "I wonder how you'll taste."

Before he could finish the job, he felt something sharp bury itself into his left shoulder. He looked over, and saw something similar to a circular saw embedded in him. He looked across the room, and saw a young girl with short purple hair in a black and white dress. Several blades identical to the one in Alex's shoulder were floating in the air around her.

"I am Sekirei number 101, Oriha!" She spoke in a voice that Alex found to be incredibly annoying.

Staring at her, Mercer dropped Higa, and cracked his knuckles.

**XXXXXX**

Twelve seconds later...

Higa was staring at Alex with shock and disbelief. Mercer had effortlessly defeated Oriha, and then consumed her.

"Just for sicking your hound on me..." He placed one hand on each of Higa's shoulders. "You don't even get to say your prayers." He then proceeded to tear Higa in half before consuming the Ashikabi of the East.

**XXXXXX**

Uzume was talking with Chiho about random things when Mercer strolled into the room.

"Who is that?" Chiho asked as she eyed him.

"He is my... friend," Uzume said. "Yes, he is an old friend of mine. He goes by Alex."

"It's nice to meet you Alex."

He didn't respond; he simply and silently walked over to Uzume.

"Can I talk to you outside?" he whispered to her.

"Chiho, I'll be right back." The two of them walked out into the hallway. "What is it?"

"There isn't a cure. But they can treat her so it doesn't get worse."

"That's wonderful!" Uzume was almost jumping with joy. But then she grew a gloomy face. "But Higa will never let that happen."

Alex smirked at her, and then took the guise of Higa. "I think he'll have a change of heart."

**XXXXXX**

As the two of them walked out of the hospital, Uzume had tears of relief and joy flowing down her face.

"Thank you," she said to Mercer, who, while using the apperance of Higa, had ordered in a team of the world's finest specialists to treat Chiho. She then did something an extreme few people did; she hugged Mercer. Needless to say, he felt uncomfortable in her embrace. He was relieved when she finally let go of him. "I guess you do have a heart."

"Yeah," he said. "A black one." He then looked around to the distance. "Excuse me. And remember our deal!" He then leapt off, leaving Uzume behind.

**XXXXXX**

Miya was the only one in the Inn still awake. She had an uneasy feeling that something bad was going to happen that night. She was out in the yard, keeping her skills with the sword sharp. She then felt an unwanted and unwelcome presence in her midst. She prepared herself, and looked over to see not Mercer as she was expecting, but Karasuba.

"Care to spar?" MBI's hound asked, unsheathing her nodachi.

**XXXXXX**

Being quiet was never a forte of Alex's talents. He could be incognito perfectly for as long as he wished, and could fool anyone when in disguise as one of his victims. Sadly, that talent would be of no use to him in his current situation. He had left Uzume behind when he had spotted the first Sekirei he had ever met and fought. Takami had told him that she was Number 4 Karasuba, also called the Black Sekirei. He had followed her for a short while, and then saw that she had stopped at the place where he was told at least two Single Number Sekirei resided. It was also the same place where whatever microscopic sliver of humanity he had left kicked in. Number One Miya and Karasuba were currently prepping each other for a not-so-friendly sword fight, and Alex seized the opportunity to sneak into the Inn unnoticed. He found himself walking through the dark interior of the house. He crept as quietly as he could across the rooms as he slowly made his way to the stairs. He tried to put as little weight on each step as he could, flinching every time he caused a creak to emit beneath his feet. When he finally reached the top, he was quietly panting, and put his arm on the wall next to him in an attempt to steady himself. Much to his surprise, it moved inward slightly. He drew his arm away from the wall, expecting a trap to spring out at him. He turned his arms into his Claws just in case, and gently pushed the trick wall all the way open. He stepped inside, and was amazed by what he saw. The room's walls were covered with computers, and sitting in front of them was a woman with very long red hair who was staring intently at the screens.

"This can't be right," she said to herself. "It's saying that Mercer is standing right behind me."

"It's smarter than you think," Mercer said to her.

She turned around, and her face lost all of its color when she saw him. He raised his left Claw into the air, ready to cover the computer screens with her blood, when suddenly something in the corner of his vision caught his attention. He lowered his Claw, changed his arms back to normal, and walked over to the object and picked it up. He slowly and carefully examined it. It looked like a large narrow diamond with an orb in the middle of it.

He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt a yearning to keep whatever this strange gem was. With it still in his hand, he turned on his heels and walked out of the hidden room leaving behind an extremely frightened and confused Matsu.

**XXXXXX**

On top of MBI Tower, Director Minaka stood on the ledge of the tallest building in the city, looking out on the horizon with an almost insane grin on his face. Takami was also on the roof with him, but she had a look of boredom.

"Why did you call me up here this time?" she asked as she pulled out and lot a cigarette.

"Simple! To witness the newest addition of the Sekirei Plan! An addition that will truly test their will to survive!"

This was news to her. "What are you talking about?"

"Remember when our friend Mercer first came to us?"

"I wouldn't say he's your friend at all, but yes." She didn't like where this was going.

"He left us a little present on the pilot he threw out of that chopper, and I had the scientists mass produce it from that one sample."

Takami stared at him with her mouth agape. She was so shocked she hadn't noticed her cigarette had fallen out of her mouth. "You made MORE of the VIRUS?!"

"Yes I did!" he said with a triumphant tone.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was about to do. "If you do what I KNOW you are planning on doing," Takami said with complete seriousness. "We will have nothing short of a national crisis on our hands!"

"No we won't," he said matter of factly. "I had the men tune it so the Sekirei are immune."

"And what about the Ashikabis?" Takami asked. Minaka didn't give a verbal response. Instead he pulled out a small detonator. "Please tell me you are not THAT insane."

**XXXXXX**

Miya and Karasuba had been walking in circles around each other in a deafening silence with their deadly blades drawn for the better part of ten minutes. When they were finally about to go at each other, they heard a strange beeping noise. Miya looked over to her former teammate, expecting an explaination since she was MBI's dog. But not even Karasuba knew what was going on. The beeping became more and more rapid until it was an unending tone. After a few seconds, the two women heard something similar to a deep bang sound.

**XXXXXX**

Mercer stood silently inside the Inn on the second floor next to the hallway window, looking at his newest prize with reveling interest. The moonlight illuminated off the clear-as-clean-glass diamond and made it shine. He couldn't figure out why a small sphere was right in the middle of it.

Suddenly, he heard a noise that sounded like a very low pitched pop. He raised his head, breaking his gaze with the gem, and looked outside through the window. A little less than a quarter of a mile away, a thick red mist was covering the streets. He instantly knew what it was.

"This... is very bad," he said to himself, not caring about being quiet anymore.

**XXXXXX**

**A/N:** It was here that I couldn't decide whether or not to have Mercer fight off and keep control over the virus like the first outbreak, or just let it run rampant while continuing his plan to become The God King.

So I decided to create BOTH plots. This story will be the one where he fights off the infected, and the other shall contain most of his personality from Prototype 2.

And I shall call it... Shito Teito Zero: Mercer The God King.

The first part of God King should be up in a few hours, since I'm uploading it simultaneously with this chapter.


	7. A Somewhat Modest Proposal

The red cloud was starting to go away. At first, Alex considered simply going outside and slaughtering every living thing that had made any form of contact with the virus to stop it from spreading. He was about to go with that idea when his thoughts drifted to the warm evening about a week ago. He saw the little blonde girl staring up at him, crying and consumed by the fear that he was going to kill her. The insanely small spark of humanity inside of him ignited into a roaring fire. He ran over to the trick wall which was still open, and tossed his jewel into the arms of the almost catatonic red-haired Sekirei.

"Hold that," he said before running off. He sprinted all over the house, slamming shut any door or window that wasn't completely closed. He was determined to keep the Blacklight out of the huge house. After making a few rounds through the house to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he wound up in the front room. As he stood there, wondering what to do next, the front door opened and Miya walked into the house. She stopped as soon as her vision fell on Mercer, who also stared at her. The two deadliest beings in existence stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. Alex broke off the electrical gaze when he quickly walked around Miya, and slammed the door shut.

"What are YOU doing here?" the landlady asked with a small disturbing smile. A demonic mask materialized behind her. Despite its horrific appearance, Alex felt no hint of fear as he turned his gaze to it.

The two of them were too busy being wary of one another to realize that the majority of the Inn's residents had been awakened by Mercer's ruckus, and were now standing across the room in a tight group looking at the two almost omnipotent warriors have a silent stand off. None of them wanted to get any closer, partly because of Miya's horrifying mask, and and also because of their immense fear of Mercer in general. The only residents who weren't standing in the room were Kusano, who was still peacefully slumbering in Miya's room, and Uzume who was still visiting Chiho in the hospital.

Before Alex could answer Miya's question, he felt the phone he had taken from Mikogami vibrating inside of him. He made it seep out of him in his left hand. He made sure to not be inturrupted by making his right arm into his viscous Blade. He answered the call.

"Alex, we have a huge problem," a now familiar voice said.

"You don't say, Takami," he responded in a voice that had a mixture of sarcasm, irritation and anger in it. He heard a gasp and looked over to see the Ashikabi of the North looking at him in awe. "Does MBI always release an unstoppable infectious disease that has no cure or a single method of treatment onto this place?" He didn't care at all that the group was listening to everything he said. They were going to find out sooner or later.

"No," Takami said in a defensive tone. "I didn't want this to happen at all. But Minaka and his crazy fantasies always makes everything take a turn for the worst."

Alex instantly grew an intense hatred for the Director. Minaka had just killed thousands of people, and ruined the lives of countless others, just to put on a show. "Where did he even GET Blacklight?"

"When you first arrived in the city, you left a small piece of yourself on that helicopter pilot."

Alex roughly face-palmed himself. "Fuck." He had forgotten that his Blade currently replaced his hand.

"Where are you?" Takami asked.

Alex stood in a confused silence for a moment, surprised to be asked such a random question. "I'm looking at your son if that helps."

"It does. Could you please leave where you are?"

"With pleasure." He hung up and put the phone into one of his pants pockets since he didn't like the feeling he got when it vibrated inside of him. He then made his Blade arm returm to normal. He turned his attention to the people in the room. Miya was gazing at him in total seriousness. Minato was still staring at him in shock, while all his Sekirei looked at their Ashikabi with concern in their eyes.

"Take this advice to heart," he said to them. "Unless you want to end up becoming a mindless living corpse or a hideously deformed monster, I suggest staying inside for a while." He put two fingers on his forehead and gave them all a casual salute. Turning on his heels, he opened the door, and quickly stepped outside and slammed it shut behind him.

"What's wrong Minato?" Musubi asked her Ashikabi, who was still in a daze.

"How on earth does he know my mom?" he asked both himself and everyone else.

Homura's eyes narrowed with anger and hatred. "This clinches it. Minaka HAS to die," he said in a strangely level-headed tone.

Miya stared at the door, considering running after Mercer. She initially thought that his so-called advice was just a way to scare them into leaving him alone so he could continue with his own devices without interruptions. But then she thought about the way he had said it. His voice had a very small hint of genuine concern in it.

"Why would HE want to help US?" she asked herself in a whisper she herself could barely hear.

Suddenly, they all heard the sound of Miya's room's door opening. Kusano walked into the room yawning and sleepily rubbing her eyes. She had a warm smile on her face, but when she saw the faces on her family members, she dropped it for a more worried look.

"What happened?" she asked. Even though she was a young child, she could easily tell by the cold atmosphere around her family, and the dark aura each of them was giving off, that something nearly traumatizing had just occurred.

"I don't really know," Miya answered without breaking her gaze on the door.

XXXXXX

"CURSE YOU MINAKAAAAAAAAA! I AM GONNA RIP YOUR FUCKING HEART RIGHT OUT OF YOUR CHEST AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR GODDAMN THROAT! THEN I'M GONNA SLICE YOU TO TINY BITS AND FORCE FEED YOU TO YOUR FUCKING DISCIPLINE SQUAD!" Alex shouted as loud as he could to the heavens with his arms raised above his tilted head. He was standing a far distance from his hospital safe house, but could easily tell that it had been turned into a Hive. Now it could only either produce more Blacklight, or be burned to the ground. He angrily pulled out his phone and dialed the number to reach Takami. His grip on the phone was so tight, he would shatter it to pieces with a minimal amount of more pressure. He heard her answer, but he said what was on his mind before she could speak.

"I am going to KILL him!"

"Who?" Takami asked with blatant concern. She feared he was referring to her son.

"Minaka! Who the fuck else?!"

She let out a relieved sigh. "That's fine by me. He NEEDS to die. When you make your move, you'll get zero resistance from me." Mercer was surprised that she was indifferent to, and even a little supportive of his death threats. His fiery anger died down. "I'm sorry you lost your makeshift home, but I think I can make it up to you."

"Oh really," Alex responded with an amused tone. "This outbreak is already moving and spreading faster than the first. This city is probably going to go straight to Hell. How you possibly make me feel better? And how the Hell did Minaka make so much of it so quickly?"

"There are things about this whole mess even I don't know about. But Minaka does. Even thought I've never looked through it, I know he periodically writes in a journal. And I'll bet that all sick and twisted thoughts he has are written down in it. I'm positive that if you can stomach reading it, you'll know absolutely everything."

Alex liked the sound of that. It was too good to be true, and he knew it. "And you're just going to hand it over to me out of the kindness of your heart?" She failed to answer. "That's what I thought. What do you want in return?"

She took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I only want you to... boost up a part of the promise you made."

"That sounds fair," he admitted. "What do you want me to do?"

She took in another deep breath. "I want you to watch over Minato."

Mercer's eyes grew as big as they could. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I want you to actively and openly protect my son. I want you to move into the Inn, and always keep an eye on him and insure his life isn't at risk."

"That last part is literally impossible with Blacklight involved. And as for the whole thing, do I look like a goddamn bodyguard or guardian angel?" He knew her request was completely fair, but still... Alex "Zeus" Mercer PROTECTING a human? He normally killed and consumed humans whenever he wanted to burn off some steam or was bored. He never made any second thoughts about his victims. After all, there were PLENTY of others waiting to take their places. The astronomical human population was an all-you-can-eat buffet to him.

"Alex, please. I'm asking... No. I am BEGGING you to help me. You're the only living thing in the world who survived this virus. You know how to fight and defeat the monsters it creates. I'm ready and willing to give you the exact thing you want, no questions asked and no catches."

Alex could hear her obvious concern for her son's safety. He thought back to the last time he was genuinely afraid for someone. He quickly shook his head to get back to the matter at hand, and thought deeply about her plea. The people living in the Inn she wanted him to call home was filled with Sekirei who hated him. He had come extremely close to killing three of them. He would have to constantly watch his back. He would also have to make sure Takami's insecure and indecisive son didn't get killed. At least until he got the journal. On the other hand, he would have a place to go to when he needed a break and didn't feel like aimlessly roaming the city. A possible home. He could also watch the Sekirei living there and compare their strength to his own. Then there was the journal. If Takami was telling the truth, which he believed she was since she wasn't stupid enough to try and trick him, he would know every single detail and secret surrounding the Sekirei. And the only thing they would know about him was his name and that he could end their lives effortlessly. None of them would be a threat at all.

His thoughts then drifted again, and a realization hit him.

"What about the girl?"

"You don't need to worry about Yukari. She's tougher than nails and exceedingly smart. I'll tell her about the virus, and she'll be more than able to take care of herself."

Alex silently agreed with her as he remembered the night he and Yukari first met. She had a Sekirei with her, and when he got close, Mercer felt like a septic tank inside. He again brought himself back to the issue at hand.

XXXXXX

Uzume was walking home with a skip in her step. She had just left the hospital, and the experts 'Higa' had hired to care for Chiho were already making her feel better. By the time Uzume was about to leave, Chiho was able to say good bye without a painful strain.

Knowing that her Ashikabi was feeling better and was getting the absolute best treatment there was put Uzume on Cloud Ten. As she rounded the wall surrounding the Inn, she stopped on a dime. There was Alex standing at the door. He looked like he wanted to knock, but his arms wouldn't obey him.

"Alex!" she happily called out and ran up behind him. She wrapped her arms around his upper stomach before he could even turn around.

At first, his entire body tensed up, but once he realized he wasn't being attacked he let himself relax, even though he felt uncomfortable and awkward with Uzume hugging him. He was used to people screaming and running away at the very mention of him.

"What are you doing here?" Uzume asked in a very cheerful voice.

Mercer let out a long sigh of defeat. "Are there any rooms available?"


	8. I Owe It All To You

Minato was leaning forward on the window sill, looking out at the city outside. Even though Mercer terrified him, he chose to heed his warning and stayed inside the house. It took several minutes of persuasion, but he eventually convinced all of his Sekirei to listen to Mercer's advice as well. All of them were currently downstairs desperatley trying to thing of ways to fight their boredom since they were cooped up inside the house. When he told Kusano that Mercer had been inside the house while she was asleep, she lost all the color on her skin and lost consciousness. He was worried about her. He was worried for all of his Sekirei. He had seen with his own eyes what Mercer was capable of, and he was apparently scared of something. Anything that frightened someone (or something) like Mercer was probably best avoided.

His phone began ringing, and he saw that it was his mother.

"Hello, Mom," he said in a somewhat indifferent voice.

"Minato, do you remember Alex Mercer?"

"Uh, yeah!" he said in an shocked voice. "Who could ever forget HIM!?"

"Good," she said with a satisfied tone. "Because you're going to be seeing a lot more of him."

Minato almost fainted and lost all the color in his visage. "Why do you say that?"

"Because he's going to be living with you from now on," she dead panned.

"Why?" Minato began to sweat.

"Because he's going to watch your back to make sure you don't die," she answered. "And to answer you next question, because I asked him to. And to answer your question that comes next again, I'll let him explain."

Minato wasn't surprised that his mother could basically read his mind, but he was surprised that she somehow managed to talk to Mercer without being mutilated, and convinced him to actually do something. "Why would he do this for you?"

"Because we made a deal. He had the opportunity to kill both you and your sister, but don't worry, Yukari is fine. Anyway, we decided to help each other. I give him a safe haven, and he doesn't harm you or your sister. However, the base I provided for him was recently... destroyed, so I made another deal with him that says he does everything in his almost limitless power to make sure you survive."

"Well, what does he get out of it?" Even though he was almost having a nervous breakdown, he couldn't help but be curious as to what his mother had offered to a man who was close to being a god.

"To sum it up, he wanted... information." She struggled to find the correct word for Mercer's payment.

"That's it?" Minato expected someone like Mercer to demand diamonds and tyrannical power. Or women. "Why would he want that?"

"I think I'll let your new friend explain that as well. He should be arriving any minute now."

"What? Friend?! He's actually coming HERE?! Hello? Hello?!" The tone told him his mother had hung up. He put his phone back in his pocket and stared out the window again, fighting the urge to scream in pure terror. Cold sweat rolled down his face and back.

Musubi had heard her Ashikabi panicky shouting, and ventured upstairs to see what was happening to him. She saw him glistening in the late afternoon sun as he gazed out the window.

"What's wrong, Minato?" she asked as she walked over and gently grabbed his arm.

"M... M-m-mer..." He was quivering so hard he was barely able to even stutter. "Merccccccc... Mercer. He's coming here."

Musubi could tell that he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and pressed herself into his side. They both felt a comforting heat between them. Feeling her soft body pressed against his, Minato slowly stopped shaking.

"Don't worry about him, Minato," she said in a reassuring and soothing voice. "As long as I can fight, I won't let him hurt you."

Hearing her say that, Minato lost all of his fears and nervousness. But he was still worried. Even though Mercer was going to protect him (Minato was positive that his mother wouldn't lie to him about something this important) his Sekirei weren't on good terms with Mercer, and it was rather easy to tell that if Mercer was attacked, he wouldn't hesitate to tear his attacker to shreds. So if they choose to start a fight with him, chances are they would end up in pretty bad shape.

"Alex!" The two of them heard Uzume's voice happily call out from outside the house.

"I guess he's here," Minato said.

"Don't worry Minato," Musubi said. She then pushed herself away from him and began to run down the hall. Minato instantly figured out what she intended to do.

"Musubi, WAIT!" She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to him with a completely confused face. "He's not here to fight. He's hear to..." He scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "Protect me."

Musubi cocked her head to a side, even more confused. "Why would he do that?"

"He and my Mom made a deal."

"I'm back everyone! And I got a friend!" Uzume's voice emitted throughout the house.

"Well at least he's on good terms with Uzume," Minato said. He started walking towards the front room. "Let's go say hello."

"So we meet again Mercer!" Tsukiumi screamed.

"Oh no..."

XXXXXX

Alex was struck in the chest by a jet of water, and he flew backwards out of the doorway and landed on his back outside.

"What are you doing?!" Uzume cried out.

"Give up Mercer," Tsukiumi said in her loud voice. "I've become MUCH stronger since we last met." She formed her lethal water blade around her right hand.

"You mean yesterday?" Alex sarcastically asked as he picked himself up. He made his arms become Clawed. "Then bring it!"

The two of them prepared to charge at each other, but then Minato ran out of the house and jumped in between them.

"STOP!" the Ashikabi shouted. Both of them obeyed. Tsukiumi made her blade evaporate into the air, and Alex made his arms return to normal. "Can we PLEASE just try to get along?"

"Why are you protecting him, Minato?" Tsukiumi demanded.

"Because I'm here to do what you fail at," Mercer said. Tsukiumi looked over to Minato in confusion, as did Musubi.

"He is going to be staying with us from now on," Minato said carefully. "He and my mom made a deal, and he agreed to act as basically a bodyguard."

"We don't need him around," Tsukiumi said. "We are more than capable of protecting you."

"Oh really?" Mercer said. "Is THAT why all of you almost died on that bridge? I took both of them down myself. I even took one of the silver-haired one's arms."

Looking at all of their shocked faces, Alex knew that he had gotten to them. He walked past them and made his way into his new home.

Seeing the inside of the house for the first time in light, Alex found it to be rather quaint and peaceful. He then heard light foot steps and looked over into the open room to see the little girl who had reignited his sense of humanity a couple of times. She looked at him for one second, and then ran off in fear.

"Here to cause even more trouble, Mr. Mercer?" He turned around to see Miya smiling at him. "Or were you just bored?"

"Actually Miya," Minato said as he walked into the house with the three Sekirei right behind him. "He's here to protect me from..." Minato then realized that his mom had not told him what Mercer was protecting him from. She said he would explain it.

"Blacklight," Alex finished for him.

"What?" everybody in the room chorused.

"It's a long story," Mercer said. "A REALLY long story."

"Well then, why don't you tell it over dinner?" Miya suggested.

XXXXXX

"... And then I flew the warhead out into the ocean, and fortunately got far enough out so the blast didn't reach the shore." Mercer and all the other residents were seated at the dinner table, and all of them were so captivated by his story of the first breakout that none of them even touched their plates, even Miya. After he and Minato explained about the agreement between Mercer and Takami, most of them wanted to hear his story of how he came to be what he was. The whole time, Kusano kept herself half-hidden behind Minato, and would cower even further behind him every time Mercer turned his head in her general direction. For some reason he couldn't figure out, Uzume had raced over to claim the seat beside him.

"Wow," Musubi said. "You saved so many lives."

"And suffered so much," Homura added.

"And you could have easily left whenever you wanted," Matsu said.

"Perhaps we misjudged you, Mercer," Miya admitted.

"You're a hero," Uzume said as she leaned in closer to him.

Tsukiumi still looked like she wanted to hurt him, and Kuu still couldn't look at him without wanting to scream.

"No I'm not. It's all my fault MBI has Blacklight. Now a second breakout is happening, and it's going to be far worse than the first."

"Exactly," Tsukiumi said. "Perhaps it would have been better if you'd died in that nuclear explosion."

"TSUKIUMI!" Uzume screamed with rage. She began to stand up, but Alex grabbed her arm and gently pulled her down. A warm sensation coursed through her when he touched her.

"You talk to me like that again," he said to the Water Sekirei. "And I'll slice your arms off and beat you to a pulp with them."

Nobody at the table had a doubt that he couldn't do that.

"No you won't," Miya said with her creepy smile. "Violence is not allowed in Maison Izumo." The demonic mask again formed in the air next to her. Everybody but Mercer quivered in fear. Uzume wrapped her arms around him and pulled herself in close to him. He was starting to get used to her grabbing onto him. After about a minute, the mask disappeared and everyone stopped shaking. "Anyway, since you'll be staying with us Mercer, I suppose you can share a room with Minato.

"What?" the two men chorused. Minato asked with shock. Mercer asked in a voice that said he understood, but he didn't like it AT ALL.

"Well, you ARE supposed to make sure he's always safe."

The two of them looked right at each other. Mercer bent his neck slowly to both sides, cracking it numerous times. "Don't look me in the eye, and don't make ANY physical contact with me."

"Believe me, that won't be a problem," Minato said nervously.

"Good." He lifted himself up, and walked out of the room. He made his way outside and looked up to the starless sky. His phone started ringing, and answered it without bothering to see who it was. "What?"

"Alexander Mercer, I am Director Minaka."

"I don't care."

"Oh but you should! The two of us have brought in a new age of the gods!"

"I knew you were a moron. I didn't think you were insane."

"That's beside the point. I have called you tonight to thank you."

"Thank me?" Mercer was starting to get confused and irritated.

"Yes! Without you, I would have never gotten my hands on your precious virus. Now this city is not only a battleground but is now a quarantine as well! Now nobody leaves! We are guaranteed to see every last Sekirei fight to the bitter and bloody end! And it's all thanks to you! As we speak, I'm detonating even more Blacklight around the city. I'm curious as to see how many people a Sekirei will kill to protect her Ashikabi. I owe all of this to YOU! Once again, thank you."

The line went dead. Mercer lowered the phone away from his head, and crushed it to pieces in his fist. He tensed up his legs and leapt over the yard's fence, and began making his way to MBI Tower.


	9. Angry At The World

Mercer decided to walk the whole way to the Tower. It gave him a better chance to run into something to kill. Sure enough, he ran into several infected civilians, and he sliced all of them to pieces. He didn't bother making his Claws appear normal. He didn't bother consuming them. They were humans. They were worthless and weak.

"Something on your mind, Spike?" He turned to see Kazehana walking beside him, smiling at him.

"Please go away."

"Why, are you angry that you didn't get to finish your meal?"

"Don't make me hurt you."

She giggled and pressed herself into him. "Why would you want to hurt someone like me?" she purred.

He responded by placing his fanned out Claw on her face and shoving her away. "Please don't touch me. I'm already infected with a disease, but who knows what's coursing through the likes of YOU."

"You know, I don't like it when you say things like that about me."

"And I don't like it when intergalactic gutter sluts ramble on about things I could care less about."

She stepped in front of him, and he stopped dead in his tracks. She looked at him, almost ready to teach him a lesson about humility. Then she looked into his eyes and saw that right now, everything was red to him. "What are you doing?"

He put his Claw on her side, and shoved her out of his way again. He began walking again. "I'm going to annihilate the Game Master," he dead panned.

A swift gust made him slide backwards until he was again standing next to the 'gutter slut'.

"I cannot let you do that," she said.

"Oh give me a BREAK," he said shaking his head. "I guess all that sake you downed all these years has killed off your brain cells. Can you NOT see that he will never return your feelings? He doesn't care about you, he doesn't even care if he murders his own children." He could see that he was getting in her head. "As we waste my precious time right now, he's infecting everyone within a radius I can't conclude on. He needs to die." He suddenly shot out his arm and grasped Kazehana around her neck. He pulled her in close and he whispered to her. "And I would love to see you try and stop me." He raised his free Claw up beside her face, and scraped each of the small swords together, making orange sparks fly off of them.

XXXXXX

Minaka was standing on the ledge of the roof of MBI Tower, reveling. He had just been told that Blacklight was covering nearly a quarter of the city.

"He's coming for you, you know."

Minaka turned his head around to look at Takami as she smoked and looked out over the city as if she was looking for something. Or someone.

"And just what reason would he have to do that?" he asked smiling at her.

"Gee, I don't know," she said with complete sarcasm. "Maybe because you called and openly mocked him about using him to infect thousands of innocent people, saying it was all thanks to him."

"Oh, he LIVES for this."

"MINAKA! YOU PSYCHOTIC BRAIN-DEAD REPROBATE!" an entirely angry voice screamed from below. The two of them looked down to the distant ground, and strained their eyes and saw Mercer standing in front of the Tower's entrance, looking up at them.

"I think he now lives for something else," Takami said. She turned around and made her way inside, knowing what was about to happen. "Good bye Minaka."

"This isn't good bye," he happily said back to her before turning his attention back down to Mercer. "This is hello."

XXXXXX

Alex stood before the Tower, rage flowing through him like Hellfire . Thanks the highly advanced senses of the numerous Sekirei he had consumed, he could easily see Minaka standing on the ledge of MBI Tower.

"You truly are out of your mind!" he shouted towards the Director with a voice loud enough to reach him and come back. "You discover a race of beings who could help improve this world so much with their knowledge and technology! A better world could have been ours, but you decide to make all of them fight to the death in a free-for-all battle royal! At first I thought you were stupid, and then I thought you were simply insane. But now I can see you're BOTH! And on top of all that, you decide to ruin the lives of THOUSANDS of innocent people who have NOTHING to do with your insane fantasies by turning them into monsters! You put them at the risk of NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION! Do you not think that other people wouldn't want this to go away? If not you're even more idiotic than I anticipated! And why do you choose to force all of them to die? To please gods, as you put it! Well here's what THIS god has to say!"

He crouched down, tensing up his leg muscles, preparing to leap up to the roof, and do something he should have done days ago. Just as he was about to launch himself, something hit him in the side with great force. He was tossed a few dozen yards, and turned to see a tank rolling towards him.

"Oh please," he said with an entirely bored tone. He transformed his arm into his Blade. The tank fired at him again, and he deflected the round away with a simple swipe. Before they had a chance to fire at him again, he leapt into the air above the assault vehicle. He raised his weaponized limb above his head, and swung it downward as he fell to just above the top of the tank. He cut it cleanly in half, and half a second later, both of the ends blew up in a fireball. "Is that the best you can do, Minaka?"

He question was answered when he heard a whirring above him, and he saw a helicopter ready to fire at him with a brigade of missiles while on the ground a platoon of about twenty MBI troopers made their way towards him. Taking in the situation, Alex at first thought about hijacking the chopper and blowing the soldiers away, but then he thought of a better, more gruesome strategy. One that would let him put on a show of his own.

Making his Blade change into his Whipfist, Alex launched it at the hovering chopper. It buried itself into the hull , and he snapped his arm downward, making the chopper fall towards the troopers. Those who weren't crushed by it were torn to shreds by the still spinning blades. And those who managed to survive being sliced apart, were burned alive by the explosion a second later.

XXXXXX

Minaka was rapidly dialing to reach his real attack plan. He had no doubt that Mercer would have defeated the soldiers; he just couldn't believe how fast the man had finished them off.

XXXXXX

Alex stood between the two bonfires that used to be a tank and a helicopter. He looked at both of them thoroughly. He wasn't admiring his work. He was just making sure all of them were dead. He then looked back up to his real target. He could see the insane Director desperately calling someone on his cell.

"Go ahead Minaka!" he shouted up with the same volume as before. "Send out as many of them as you want! I'll kill all of them! If you can retain any lessons, remember THIS..."

Mercer's voice then became so loud, it echoed all throughout the city, and everyone within it could clearly understand him.

"NOTHING WILL PROTECT YOU FROM ME! NOT MEN! NOT WEAPONS! NOT ARMOR!"

XXXXXX

Mikogami sat in his penthouse with one of his few remaining Sekirei Taki. Mercer's echo fell on his ears, and he almost died from fright.

"We are going to die if he finds us," he shivered.

"No we won't," Taki said trying to comfort him.

"Don't lie to yourself!" he screamed. "We royally pissed him off, and he killed Mutsu, and he's about to take out the Game Master! If he even catches sight of me, he'll... he'll..." Mikogami was so frightened he couldn't finish his sentence.

XXXXXX

Sanada Nishi, Ashikabi of the West, was sitting his motorcycle, taking in Mercer's echo. It made him relieved that he had chosen to leave the living virus alone from the start.

"What do we do now?" He turned around to look at his three Sekirei who were all looking at him, waiting for his answer.

"Simple. We leave him alone, and pray he doesn't run into us when he's mad."

XXXXXX

"Are you sure you still want to go looking for him?" Shiina asked his Ashikabi Yukari.

She didn't offer a verbal reply, but Shiina got his answer anyway. For the first time in a long time, Yukari's expression wasn't filled with pride, confidence and determination. It was coated with fear.

XXXXXX

"He's so... angry at the world," Miya said as she looked at the Tower in the distance.

XXXXXX

For the first time since he had arrived in the now isolated city, Alex decided to use his Hammerfist. His arms were now twice as thick, and were black and gray with a rough texture. He slammed one of his fists into the ground, causing the earth to shake. He looked up and saw Minaka flailing his arms in the air as he tried to keep his balance on the ledge. Alex then began to rapidly slam the ground with his fists, causing several tremors to shake the Tower. Minaka still miraculously managed to not fall over the ledge, and Alex lost his patience. He was prepared to make the whole Tower crumble to the ground as long as he got his hands (or claws) on Minaka. He jumped into the air, and got ready to cause a full blown earthquake, when something hit him in midair. He landed on his feet, and met the gaze of the second and third Sekirei he ever encountered. They looked the same as he remembered, except Haihane now had a golden gauntlet where her arm which he had sliced off used to be. Mercer changed his Hammerfists into his Claws

"We told you before," Benitsubasa said with an evil smile. "Nobody messes with the Discipline Squad and lives!"

Alex smirked at them. "You're out of your league." He took the guise of Mutsu. "I know all the tricks the original Discipline Squad knew." He changed into Akitsu. "And I'm so powerful now, I'm almost unstable." He returned to looking like himself and reformed his Claws. "But by all means, if you wish to sign your death warrants, I'm not going to stop you."

Haihane lost her look of confidence. She thought back to that day when the man she was supposed to attack chopped off her arm without even trying. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait for her?" she asked Benitsubasa.

"Of course not!" she yelled. "We can take him down! We wouldn't be in this Squad if we couldn't!"

She charged at him at him, ready to shatter his skeleton with a single punch. Just as she was about to hit him, Mercer sidestepped, and held up his Claw. She ran into the open weaponized arm, and it again was embedded in her stomach. Mercer lifted her up into the air with his Claw keeping her up.

"Not again," she moaned. Alex smiled up at her. He ran forward a few steps, and threw her forward. His Claw slid out of her, and she went flying out of sight. While Alex basked in his easy work, Haihane ran up and buried her gold claws into him. He instantly elbowed her hard, sending her back and prying her claws out of him. He spun around and began making quick lethal slashes at her. Haihane's speed helped her avoid being sliced apart. She waited for an opening, and swiped at him. He dodged all of her atracks without an ounce of effort. After teasing her for a minute, he finally made a fast swing and seperated her prosthetic limb from her body. With Haihane armed with only one claw (no pun intended) it didn't take long for him to once again grasp her gauntlet, this time on her real arm. He raised his Claw to the side, ready to slice her face off.

"Please don't kill me!" she begged.

He looked into her eyes for a moment. "Alright."

She was both relieved and surprised.

In the next instant, she felt immeasurable and unimaginable pain. Alex tore her real arm right out of its socket, spun it around in his hand, and buried the steel claws into her head.

"A death at the hands of one's own sword is truly a pathetic one," Mercer said as he consumed Haihane. After the Sekirei was gone, Alex again turned his vision upward to Minaka, who was still on the roof's edge. "YOU SEE MINAKA! NOT EVEN YOUR DISCIPLINE SQUAD CAN HOLD A CANDLE TO ME!"

"Well of course THEY can't, but why not test your strength with ME?"

Alex turned his head to see the very first Sekirei he had ever met.

"Did you enjoy your flight?" he asked

"It was enjoyable," Karasuba said with a creepy grin. She unsheathed her sword. "Much like this is going to be."

XXXXXX

A/N: Your constructive criticism and suggestions are highly appreciated. In fact, right now it's needed.

Kill her? Don't kill her? Kill him? Don't kill him? I ask myself these every time I write, and I have no idea which one to act on at the moment.

For instance, Alex goes on a rampage in the next chapter, which is currently half written, and I'm rather indecisive on who dies.


	10. Learning On The Job

**A/N:** Originally, this was going to start out with a nightmare involving Alex torturing, and then killing, Akitsu over and over again, but I figured it was too graphic, even for THIS story.

**XXXXXX**

Minato awoke slowly. He looked over to the other side of the room, and saw that Mercer wasn't there. The last anyone had seen or even heard from him was technically the blood-curling echo of a threat they had all clearly heard last night. He wasn't worried about Mercer at all. He was just curious as to what he was up to. Suddenly, something big came crashing through the wall, and when the debris settled, he was startled by what he saw. There was Mercer standing before him, and next to him was a giant block of ice with Benitsubasa inside. Her eyes were closed, and her expression said she was in pain when what happened to her occured. Both arms were wrapped tightly around her stomach.

"I'd hurry if I were you," Mercer said to Minato. "I don't remember what she charges." Confused, Minato looked over to his other side, and his face turned red when he saw Kazehana sitting up next to him. By the amount of skin that was showing, it was clear that she was naked from at least the waist up. She had a look of anger. "Maybe the _Director_ can clear things up," Alex said with a slight smirk.

Kazehana prepared to launch an attack at him, but before she could, he was suddenly standing over her and pointing a very powerful revolver at her head.

"Alex don't!" Minato shouted out. Mercer looked at him for a second, and then walked away from the two of them and out of the room. Minato looked over to Kazehana, who was looking right back at him with glittering eyes. "Kazehana?"

"So protective and manly," she purred. "Even though you _know_ you can't stop him, you still stand up to him to protect me."

"Well of course. I can't just let him harm you for no reason."

A warm sensation consumed her inside. She then knew that she was reacting to the man sitting up next to her. She placed her hands on her shoulders, and kissed him. An intense, but pleasuring heat consumed her. When she finally serperated herself from him, her wings of light manifested. She grinned at his look of amazement and shock. "Kazehana, Sekirei Number Three, the Wind Sekirei, pleadge my undying love to you now and forever."

Minato let out a nervous laugh.

**XXXXXX**

Mercer was pacing around the backyard twirling the reolver in hs hand. On his way down, Uzume had walked out of her room just as he passed it wearing nothing but panties. She gave him a warm smile and asked if he wanted to talk about nothing. He passed up the offer.

"Hey Alex." He turned to see Minato walking towards him. "Why are you here?"

"To watch you and sure you don't get flayed," he answered without stopping his pacing.

"Okay, well what are you getting in return?"

"An unstoppable strategy."

Minato didn't have a singal idea how his mother could possibly giver Mercer _that_, but he choose to lt it go for the time being. "okay, well what would you do if I went out into an Infected area?"

"I would go with you and kill everything in sight," he answered without hesitation.

Minato found that both comforting and disturbing. "What if Tsukiumi or Musubi went out into one? Would you follow them too?"

"No," he said. "Only if you followed suit."

"Why not?" Minato was surprised by the answered he had been given.

"Becuase they're _your_ Sekirei. Thus they are your _problem_. You are _my_ burden, so you are my _problem_. They are neither my Sekirei or burden, so they are of no concern of mine."

Minato then made a drastic choice. He wanted to be able to make sure his Sekirei, all of them, were as safe as they could be. And since Alex had just flatly stated that he would only help them out if Minato was in danger himself, that really didn't help. Another thing was even though Mercer was next to immortal and unstoppable, he was but one.

"Can you make me like you?" Minato asked.

Mercer stopped dead, and turned to him. "What?"

"Can you make me more like you? Fast, strong, bullet-proof?"

"Is that really what you want?"

"Yes. I want to be able to protect them, and since _you_ won't, I don't really have a lot of other options do I?"

Mercer was amazed. He'd have never thought in a million years someone would actually _want_ to be infected with Blacklight. But if that's what his burden wanted...

"Sure. But hold still..." He drobbed the gun to the ground and Clawed his now open hand. "I think this might hurt."

"You _think_? Shouldn't you know how this feels?!"

Alex simply shrugged his shoulders. "I was dead at the time." He then jammed his Claw into Minato's left ribcage and pumped a small portion of the virus inside of him. "How does it feel?" He was actually curious. He knew that being consumed felt like being burned with Hellfire, but he didn't know what being infected felt like.

"It feels like I'm freezing inside," he answered. "And I feel completely drained."

"That's to be expected."

"I thought you said you didn't know how this feels."

"I know what it _does_. I don't know how it actually _feels._"

Just after Alex pulled his Claw out of Minato, a very aggravated voice called out to him.

"What are you doing?!"

The two men looked over to see Tsukiumi with her fists clenched with immense fury staring at them. Standing next to her was a confused Musubi.

Minato put one hand over the part of his stomach Mercer had pumped his virus into him, and with the other, he motioned the two of them to stop and listen. Before he could tell them, Mercer answered for him.

"To put it simply..." Alex bent down, picked up the handgun, and brought himself back up. "I did this." He shot Minato in the gut and used his free hand to shove him hard enough to send him flying into the tree across the yard.

Instantly, the two Sekirei took action. Musubi sprinted over to her Ashikabi, and Tsukiumi came at Alex with her water blade at the ready. Rather than deciding to counter her assault, Alex formed his Shield on his forearm.

"TSUKIUMI STOP!" Minato shouted. She instantly halted herself and looked over in shock. She had expected him to be unconscious or half dead. He was feeling himself around his stomach, looking for the bullet hole or any wounds at all, and found none while Musubi looked at him with surprise. "See? I'm fine," he said to both of them with a smile. He then dropped to his knees.

"Minato!" Musubi exclaimed as she bent down next him.

"Yes, that's to be expected," Mercer said in a laid back voice. He walked over to them with Tsukiumi right behind him. She was now more concerend for her Ashikabi than angry at Mercer. "It takes its toll at first, but you'll adjust to it in about an hour."

"What's wrong with him?" Tsukiumi asked. She went over to Minato and kneeled down on his other side.

"To put it simply, he's hungry. He needs to eat."

"Oh okay," Musubi said with relief. "I want more breakfast anyway." She hoisted Minato up into a struggling standing position.

"Okay, maybe I said that wrong."

Minato looked at him with disturbed eyes. "You mean I need to...?"

Mercer nodded slowly. "Hold this." He handed the gun to Musubi. "Wait here." He leapt off, leaving the three of them alone.

After a few minutes of deafening silence, Minato felt extremely uncomfortable . He turned his head to the right, and saw Musubi gazing at him. He then looked over to his left, and saw Tsukiumi doing the same.

"What did he do?" the two women chorused.

"He..." Minato struggled to tell them. "He made me more like him."

As they looked at him in pure shock and partial terror, Mercer landed in the middle of the yard. In his arm was an Infected he had beaten in unconsciousness. He threw Minato's breakfast to the ground and turned to the trio. "Well? Go on."

Minato slowly stood up, as did his Sekirei. They slowly made their way over to Mercer.

"Is this truly necessary?" Tsukiumi asked.

"If he wants to continue being able to walk, yes." He motioned for Minato to step closer to the Infected. He approached the walking corpse and looked down at it.

"So what exactly do I do?" He asked Mercer without looking away from the hideous unmoving body.

"Easy, just stomp on it," Mercer said with an emotionless voice.

"It's really that easy?"

"Yes. With your newfound strength, you should be able to go right through him, and even possibly into the ground. At that point, the virus, which is now forming what I consider a partnership with your subconscious, will ask it if you want to simply leave a giant hole in him, or... eat him, basically."

"Is that really how it works?" Musubi asked.

"I don't know, that's how I think it does," he replied.

Minato let out a long nervous sigh. "I really don't want to do this."

Alex let out a sigh of his own. "Minato, he's an Infected. He has no sense of right and wrong or humanity. He lives only to eat people and spread Blacklight. If we went out and fetched his mother, and put her in front of him, he would eat her!" He then noticed that all three of them were staring at him in shock, and felt uncomfortable. "Or... he would TRY to. Because... we wouldn't just let him... go and eat... his own mother... I guess. Right?"

Tsukiumi shook her head in shock at him with her mouth agape.

"Who would make something so horrible?" Musubi asked on the verge of tears.

"Gentek," Mercer answered shrugging his shoulders.

Minato let out a defeated sigh. "Well... here goes nothing." He stepped next to the Infected's prone body, and raised his right foot in the air. He brought it down with moderate force, and just as Alex said he would, he drove his foot clear through the man's back. The other three watched as the body slowly became coated with thick black ooze, and then disintegrated into Minato.

"So how do you feel?" Mercer asked knowingly.

Minato first looked into the distance, and then turned his attention to Mercer. "Better," he said with a slight smile.

Mercer patted him on the shoulder. "Excellent. Now go and meet him outside the front door in about a minute."

"Why?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Because I suppose I should show you the ropes before you accidentally do something stupid and get yourself hurt. Or worse. Walk slowly. If you go too fast, you might find yourself going through a wall."

"Uuh, okay." He walked off into the house.

Mercer turned to the two Sekirei. "Could you two please check and see if my trophy is thawing or not? And if she is, DO NOT kill her."

"And what are we supposed to do if she is?" Musubi asked.

"That's your problem to solve." He tensed up his legs and jumped over the fence.

Tsukiumi looked over to Musubi with a look of pure confusion. "Trophy?"

**XXXXXX**

For a few hours, Mercer had been showing Minato what he was capable of now. Mercer had decided to have him learn on the job, and immediately made him run up the side of a skyscraper, which he managed to do. After that, Minato learned that he would probably never have to worry about falling after Mercer shoved him off the roof. Upon landing on his back, Minato created a small crater in the street he had landed in. Seconds later, Mercer created one right next to him, smiling and saying he would make a horrible cat.

After that, Minato asked him to merely EXPLAIN things. So they casually walked around town, careful and mindful to avoid wandering into an area where Minaka had unleashed a portion of his Blacklight supply.

"So will I ever be able to make Claws or that Blade you use?" Minato asked. He wanted to be able to protect his Sekirei as much as he could.

"Maybe," Mercer replied. "If we ever run into any Evolved. Their extremely mutated DNA is very powerful when consumed."

"What does an Evolved look like?"

"Believe me, you'll know when you see one."

Minato took his word for it.

"Why are you so weak?" The two of them turned their heads to look over and see a man in a dark green collared jacket staring down at a girl with short orange hair wearing a shirt and short skirt. She had a dark blue head band on as well. The gigantic hammer the girl was dragging behind her told Mercer and Minato she was a Sekirei.

"I'm sorry Tanegawa," the girl said in a submissive voice. "I thought I could beat her..."

"Don't think!" The man slapped her hard across the face.

Mercer didn't bat an eye to the Ashikabi's actions. If he DID feel concern, he would have been the world's biggest hypocrite.

Minato on the other hand, was deeply offended by the display of abuse. "Hey you can't do that to her!"

"You should worry about YOURSELF!" the Ashikabi called back. He prepared to say a threat, but his voice died instantly when he caught sight of Mercer. "Hey... you're Alex Mercer!" A wicked smile formed on his face.

"The one and only," Alex replied in a somewhat bored voice.

"I suggest you come with me and Yashima before you get hurt." His smile didn't waver when his Sekirei looked him in with a shocked and frightened face.

For the first time Minato had known him, he heard Mercer let out an actual laugh. "I think I'll pass."

"Bad choice, freak." He turned to his hammer-wielding Sekirei and pointed to Mercer. "Go teach him a lesson Yashima!"

"Bu-but-but," she had obvious fear in her tone. "I don't think I can-"

Her Ashikabi slapped her again. "I said DON'T THINK!"

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. She then turned to Mercer and raised her hammer onto her shoulders. "Please do what he says. I don't want to fight you."

"I suppose that makes you the smart one of the two," Mercer said with amusement.

"What are you waiting for? ATTACK HIM!" her Ashikabi demanded. She then began running towards Mercer. Minato could only stand back and watch. He knew that even though he now had the same virus as him, he still wouldn't stand a chance against Mercer, so he couldn't be able to stop him from killing this miserable Sekirei.

Yashima charged at Mercer, who simply stood there, waiting for her. When she got close enough, she swung at him from the side, and he launched himself into the air. Yashima looked around desperately, trying to find him before he could get the drop on her.

"Is that the best you can do?" Mercer asked as he stood directly behind her. She yelped and jumped away in surprise. Mercer just stood there. "I'm waiting."

"Don't just stand there," her Ashikabi screamed. "Get him!"

Yashima raised her hammer above her head, and tried to swing down and crush Alex, who easily caught it in his open palm in mid-swing. "If you're trying to amuse me," he said to her in a bored voice. "You're failing miserably." He lifted the hammer higher into the air, and shook it violently to make Yashima let go of the handle. He then threw it into the air and caught by its handle. He then raised it and slammed it into the ground with a force comparable to his Hammerfists. He let go of the hammer that was now embedded into the ground, and looked up to see the Sekirei with tears of pure terror rolling down her face. "Thank you. I can't say it was fun, but it was... time killing I suppose."

"Alright, that's it!" The Ashikabi ran over and picked up his Sekirei.

"Please don't send me to my death," Yahima begged him. He then kissed her roughly and forcefully. When they separated, bright wings of light manifested on her back.

"Use your Norito," the abusive Ashikabi ordered. "And kill him."

She submissively ran over and tugged her hammer out of the ground. She then raised it over her shoulders, and ran towards Mercer with fearful tears still on her face.

"Hammer of my pledge, shatter the enemy of my Ashikabi!" Her hammer then began glowing with a bright blue aura. She jumped in the air with her weapon above her head. "GRAVITY HAMMER!"

As she swung down towards him, Mercer nonchalantly made his arm transform into his Blade, and raised it above his head. As the hammer came down onto his weaponized limb, it was sliced cleanly right down the middle, just like Moses and the Red Sea.

With her weapon destroyed, Yashima could only stand there, frozen terror as Mercer made his arm return to normal and began walking towards her with a straight face.

"I guess I was wrong," he said to her. "THAT was your best." He raised his right leg. "And it wasn't enough." He delivered a bone-shattering kick into her stomach. She went flying back, roughly scraping herself across the ground until rolling to a stop.

Her horrible Ashikabi began running towards Mercer. "Nobody does that to Yashima!"

"Nobody but you," Minato said under his breath.

Mercer decided to see how the man's suicide run would go. After he got close enough, he pulled out a knife and shoved it into Mercer's side.

"Nice knife," Mercer commented, looking down at the steel embedded below his ribcage. He held up his right arm and formed his Claws. "You like mine?"

After hacking and slashing the Ashikabi to pieces, he jumped over to the Sekirei, and picked her up by grabbing her by the neck with his still Clawed hand. Blood was flowing out of her mouth and she was weeping. He brought her up so that she was eye-level with him.

"Please Mr. Mercer, help me," she begged.

"Help you? After you tried to kill me?"

She began crying a little harder. "P-please... Please..."

He considered consuming her, but saw that she was next to worthless compared to Akitsu and Mutsu. "You're so... weak." He tossed her aside and walked off, fully aware that she would die along with her Ashikabi.

**XXXXXX**

The two of them were back home, and Alex was alone in their room circling the frozen Benitsubasa.

"I cannot help but wonder if she is still alive."

"Well I wish you would get rid of her." Alex turned to see Tskiumi standing in the huge hole in the wall he had made earilier.

"What do I owe to have the pleasure of making your acquaintance?"

"I'm... curious," she said in an unusually small voice.

"About what?" Alex asked in a rather indifferent voice.

"Will Minato ever become... even _more_ similar to you?"

"No. Not unless he consumes a Sekirei or an Evolved Infected. Besides, he could never be as powerful as me."

"And makes you think _that_?" Tsukiumi regained some of her volume.

"Easy. You."

"Me?" She was very confused.

"Yes. Not just you, but _all_ his Sekirei. He loves them, and looks out for them. That makes him both distracted and scatter-minded. He'll put his neck on the line for you, and someone will slit it without delay. See, I learned that the only way to grow stronger is to look out only for _yourself_."

"You're _delirious_. Haven't you ever loved someone?"

"The last woman I loved in the sense you're refering to sold me out to Blackwatch, and I wound up getting a _parasite_ on my back which came _VERY _close to killing me."

Tsukiumi looked at him in shock for a moment. "So you believe that love only makes one weak."

"Correct my tsundere friend. It also makes _you_ weak. Your concern for him will cost you, and I'm willing to bet that in the near future, Minato and I will watch the helicopters carry all of you away." He could see he was both scaring her, and making her angry. "If you want, I'd be more than happy to go and fetch your corpses for him..."

**XXXXXX**

Miya hoisted herself up from the kneeling position she was in in front of her husband's shrine. Looking down at his picture she thought about how he would react to the mess Minaka had created. "It's all just pure hell Takehito."

Suddenly, she heard crashing and yelling. She turned around to see Tsukiumi running towards her with Mercer right behind. The Water Sekirei turned around and sent a water arrow straight at him, which he easily avoided. When they got close to Miya, Mercer leapt at Tsukiumi, who ducked to dodge his charge, and he wound up having his Claws stuck in the wall right next to Miya. Tsukiumi then ran outside to a wider area where her attacks could do serious damage.

Mercer pulled his arms back, trying to free himself, but didn't succeed. "What the...? What's this _made_ of?" He then turned his head to look at his landlady. "Hello Miya," he said casually. He then turned his attention back to his arms, and put his right foot on the wall to give even more force. After pulling himself away once more, he was freed from the wall, but took two big chunks with him. After staggering back a few steps and almost falling over, he regained his balance, and forced his individual Claws to fan out and shattered the pieces of wall around them. He then ran outside in pursuit of Tsukiumi.

Miya followed him, but at first she hesitated.

She wasn't sure she could maintain dominance over Mercer for much longer.


	11. A Heart Of Hatred

A/N: Wow. Seven and a half thousand people have read this story. I am both amazed and honored that so many of you take the time to actually read this.

XXXXXX

Tsukiumi and Mercer were having an all out war in the backyard. Each time she would send an attack his way, he would easily dodge it and make a swipe at her with his Claws. Mercer knew that when he saw red, he was going to kill every single living thing around him. And right now, everything seemed to be coated in glowing blood to him, so he was holding back as much as he could but it still wasn't enough to NOT use his Claws. After finally making her crash to the ground, Alex got ready to jump onto her, when suddenly something struck him on the top of his head. He exited his battle stance and turned around to see Miya smiling creepily at him. In her hands was a broom and a wooden sword.

"Did you just... strike me?" Mercer asked in amazement. Very few had ever managed to get the drop on him, and those who miraculously succeeded mostly got torn apart the next second.

"Yes. I do believe that I explicitly explained the rule of NO VIOLENCE to you the first day you moved in here." A giant demon mask materialized behind her. Mercer didn't feel threatened at all by it.

"One doesn't just instantly have control over me... Death Goddess." He smirked at her. He had clearly broken another one of her many rules since she prepared to hit him again. He caught the wooden handle in his Claw, and effortlessly snapped it to pieces. Everybody who had since been watching the fight between Mercer and Tsukiumi stopped breathing. "I know you can do better than that."

"If you're so confident in yourself, why not train like the others?" Miya was now looking for an excuse to teach Mercer a lot of lessons.

"It would be insipid and redundant with you using that fake sword," Mercer said dryly. He made his way back inside. "Let me know when you pull out a real blade."

XXXXXX

Benitsubasa coughed roughly several times. Her vision was extremely blurry, but she could still tell she wasn't anywhere familiar to her. The lower half of her body felt somewhere between extremely cold and numb.

"Amazing," a voice behind her said. She tried to turn around to see who it was, bit for some reason her hips remained exactly as they were. She shook her head a few times, and her sight slowly improved. She looked down at herself and almost screamed. Her entire body from her waist down was completely incased in a huge block of ice. She tried thrusting her body back and forth to loosen herself, but all to no avail. She punched it as hard as her still weak body could and didn't even chip a piece of it off. The voice then spoke again. "Perfectly preserved and functional." Benitsubasa then saw Mercer walk into her line of vision from behind her.

"I'm intrigued as to how well you still are. You've been in my homemade glacier for about a week.," Mercer said as he Clawed his arms and ran one of his sword-like digits along the front of the ice.

"How did I even get here you freak?" she demanded. "Last thing I remember is you throwing me into the sky."

"Simple. I ditched your friend Karasuba, found you in a small crater, used my freezing skills to preserve you, and brought you back here."

"How did YOU get the power to make ice?" she asked in disbelief.

Mercer smirked at her, and took the form of the first Sekirei he ever Consumed. "I learned from the best," the guise of the stoic Discarded Sekirei answered in an emotionless voice. Benitsubasa looked at her/him in horror. Mercer returned to himself. "And now YOU can teach me a few things." He Clawed his arms and raised two of his talons on his left limb so that they were millimeters from her eyes. She began sweating icy bullets.

"No wait!" she begged. "Please don't!"

"Why?" Mercer asked playing his favorite game: cat and mouse. "What could you POSSIBLY have or do that I would want? You've already helped me realize that I can cryogenically preserve someone perfectly and that the ice I can create is all but unbreakable, and I fail to see what else you could do except give me your memories and powers. But if you have any ideas or suggestions, I'm waiting."

Benitsubasa desperately wracked her brain trying to give him something he might see as useful or even entertaining; she really didn't want to become one of his snacks and provide him with the ability to go wandering running around looking exactly like her. Her heart ached as she pictured him disguised as her strolling through the levels of the Tower, and locating Natsuo. She stopped herself from continuing her demented fantasy; she didn't want to give him the pleasure of seeing for himself that he was extremely close to breaking her.

"I'm judging by the empty and hopeless expression of yours that you cannot give me an answer." He brought his Claw back so it was next to his head. "Enjoy Hell." Just as she was about to get cut to ribbons, Benitsubasa was saved by the most unlikely of rescuers.

"Mercer," Musubi said as she stood in the doorway with a confused expression. Both Alex and Benitsubasa turned to look at her. "What are you doing to her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mercer asked with a surprised tone. "I'm going to rid us of her." Musubi cocked her head to the left and became even more lost. Mercer let out a somewhat annoyed sigh. "I'm going to Consume her." Musubi still didn't know what he was talking about and he got a little more irritated and completely froze Benitsubasa up past her head again. She now had a look of being scared. "I'm going to do to her what I did to the Broken Sekirei. Remember the first time we... met?"

Musubi did remember, and she gasped loudly. "Why are you doing THAT to her?! Why does she have to disappear into you?"

Mercer looked at her with bewilderment and disbelief. "Why are YOU so... concerend for her? She almost killed Minato! She technically DID kill you! She fights for and defends a complete maniac who's forcing you and all your friends to murder each other for absolutely NO REASON!"

Her drastic change of face told him he had either enlightened her on why he was terminating the Red Sekirei, or that he had burnt her with his torch.

"I can see why you feel you should do what you intend to." Both of them turned to see Miya looking at them. She wasn't smiling at them and didn't have a terrifying aura around her.

"How long have you been there?" Mercer asked.

"Since you first thawed her out."

Mercer turned his head to Musubi with a raised eyebrow of confusion. "How did you not notice her? Or did you just not say anything?"

Her blank face said that she didn't have a definite answer. Mercer turned back to Miya.

"So what are you doing here? Going to try and convince me that I shouldn't do it?"

She shook her head. "I'm not going to bother with that. I quickly learned that you aren't one to persuaded." She turned her line of vision so that she was looking past the Sekirei and the Sapient Virus and at the imprisoned Discipline Squad member. "I just want to say I believe that the reason you so readily murder your adversaries is because your heart is so full of anger, remorse, and sheer hatred."

Having heard this, Musubi looked over at Mercer with a look that said she was afraid that he would randomly decide to impale her with his Claws. She quickly walked away, leaving the two most powerful beings alive alone.

"Your belief is off," Mercer told her with a straight face. "Mostly because I don't have a heart."

"We both know that's not true. If it were, you'd have killed Misubi, Minato, Tsukiumi, and Kuu the first time you all met."

Mercer's face didn't change but inside, he realized that she had a point. "You probably got me there."

"Tell me something; have you always been so sociopathic? Haven't you ever fought to keep someone alive and safe?"

Mercer kept a dead silence as his memories showed him Manhattan, and how he saved Dana from several Evolved. How he kept off hordes of Infected from reaching his good acquaintance Dr. Ragland. And how he had personally prevented Blackwatch from erasing the entire island, and everyone on it, from existence.

Miya saw that he was deep in thought, and turned to walk away. "I won't stop you from killing her, but I ask that you don't do it here."

"I'm fine with that," Mercer responded after shaking his hooded head a few times to bring himself back to the present. "I wanted to put on a show anyway."

XXXXXX

Minaka and Takami were both standing on the roof of the Tower. The former was basking while the latter simply stood there bored, somewhat hoping that Mercer would make his move before the Director decided to unleash even more Blacklight.

"Isn't is magnificent?" Minaka excitedly asked looking out at the city. It was easy to tell which parts were still healthy and which we're now ruled by Infected.

"Very," Takami replied with total sarcasm as she lit a cigarette. "You've unleashed an incurable infectious disease that turns its victims into either walking corpses or monsters, or just simply kills them. Oh, and you also royally piss off one of the most dangerous and powerful men in the world by bragging that HE had a part in this, and in return, he slaughters thirty honest hard working soldiers and destroys two top of the line military assault vehicles with a flick of his wrist, just to threaten you."

"That's actually a very well put summary," a somewhat familiar voice said from behind them. They both turned to see Alex Mercer standing ten feet behind them, and next to him was Benitsubasa frozen in a huge block of ice. He looked at Minaka who still had on a smile. "I told you that men, weapons, and armor couldn't stop me from getting you, but now it seems not even your precious Discipline Squad can get the job done."

Takami and Minaka looked on in silence as Mercer smashed the ice to pieces, freeing Benitsubasa. She fell to the ground on her hands and knees, having another fit of painful coughs and strained breathing. Before she could even figure out where she was, Mercer stepped directly over her so that one of his legs was on either side of her and they were facing the same way. He raised his Claws into the air, and drove them into her lower head and neck. She choked on her own blood for a few seconds before Mercer consumed her.

"Oh, she knew quite a bit," Mercer said lifting his head up to look at his two audience members. He casually walked over to the ledge. "See you around." He leaned forward and allowed himself to fall towards the distant ground. As he fell, he changed his Claws into his Hammerfists, and when he was about to land, he drove them back and then shot them forward into the ground. The impact he made caused the entire city to shake.

"I like this already," he said to himself as he changed his arms back to Claws and jumped out of the deep crater he had created.

XXXXXX

"You still think he's not a problem?" Takami asked as the two of them watched Mercer jump out of a gigantic crater and walked off.

"Of course!" Minaka replied. He pulled out his phone and dialed. "Send up Karasuba." He hung up and pulled out a syringe from his coat pocket.

"What the Hell is THAT?" Takami demanded as she leaned in close to look inside the needle. It was full of a nightmarish black liquid.

"This is a direct and pure sample of Mercer," Minaka told her. "The other night when he came knocking on our door and smashed a lot of things to dust, the tank actually managed to blow off a piece of him."

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked nervously.

"Well, I didn't have the men tamper with it, so it'll still have affects on Sekirei."

At that moment, the entrance to the roof opened and Karasuba strolled over to them with a lazy grin. "You called, Minaka?"


	12. Attention

**A/N: This chapter has a funny story to it. It's been in my head for a few days now, but I'm too busy and lazy to type it up. However, just earlier my friend and I were driving home from Detroit, and on the way I just handed him my iPod and told him to type what I said since I'm the one with the license and the truck.**

XXXXXX

"Alex... doing this won't bring her back."

"It's not about bringing her back, Miya." Alex looked at her with a furious scowl. "It's about what's FAIR!"

He turned around and leapt off into the city. Miya shook her head. A lot of people were going to die in very gruesome ways. And they had absolutely no chance of survival if they happened to be in his path.

XXXXXX

Mikogami had been paranoid ever since Mercer's threat towards the Director echoed all throughout the city. Right now he was literally shaking as his Sekirei Taki tried to comfort him before he had a nervous breakdown.

"Will you please stop worrying Hayato-sama? He has no reason to come after you."

"Yes... yes he does. I tried to make him do something against his will, and he killed Akitsu and Mutsu. And now he'll kill me."

"Right you are." Neither of them knew who said that, and in the next instant a clawed arm shot out of Taki. Her mouth opened but no noise came out as she looked down at her stomach. Mikogami looked behind her and saw Mercer as he consumed the silver-haired Sekirei. When she was completely gone, the Living Virus looked at the Ashikabi with a bored scowl. "What else you got?"

XXXXXX

The fight had somehow found its way into the street in front of the building Mikogami lived in. Mercer either consumed or torn apart all of the Ashikabi's Sekirei except two; one was holding a long whip and the other had some sort of control over two long strands of metal wire. Mercer had lost sight of Mikogami, but it didn't matter. The boy would meet his demise this day no matter what he tried to do to escaped. The whip-wielding one died first. After seeing Mercer bury his Whipfist into her friend's neck, the one that could control wires dropped to her knees. Seeing that he didn't have the leisure time to taunt her, Alex simply walked over to her and swiped his Claws across her head, ripping out her throat and half her face. With all Mikogami's Sekirei gone Mercer began to look around for the extremely annoying Ashikabi.

XXXXXX

Mikogami continued to shake with fear as he sped away in his limo. He wanted to get as far away from Mercer as possible. Suddenly, the vehicle came to a halt. He flew out of his seat. He had no idea what was going on until the left door of the car was torn right off, and he looked over to see Mercer looking at him intensely.

"Did you really think running away would save you from me?"

XXXXXX

"Oh my..." Matsu couldn't think of anything to say. She, Tsukiumi, and Musubi had watched the entire unfolding of Mercer and Mikogami and were currently staring in horror as their friend tore the South Ashikabi to shreds with his bare normal hands.

"Matsu..." Musubi started. "Do you think Minato could... be more like him later on?"

XXXXXX

"What could you possibly want?" Mercer said as he past Kazehana. He had just finished slaughtering five more Sekirei who didn't deserve to face his wrath, but he needed to catch MBI's attention to the point where they just couldn't ignore him. By the look of Minaka's Whore (as is what Alex called her) she wanted to stop him.

"Doing this won't make the pain go away Alex." She started to follow him since he didn't bother stopping his menacing pace.

"I don't expect it to. I merely want her to pay for what she did with her life."

"I know how you feel. And I know what you're going through." As soon as she finished that sentence, Alex rounded and faced her so that their noses were almost touching.

"You know how I feel. Really? Do you know what it's like to die? What it's like to drown in a pool of your own blood?" His voice became more menacing. "Do you know how it feels to have a parasite injected into you and feel your body literally reject you as said parasite eats you alive from the inside out? DO YOU REALLY KNOW HOW THAT FEELS?!"

His stared daggers into her eyes which were full of surprise and fear. He turned around again and began walking off. Kazehana gathered all the courage she had and continued to follow him.

"You don't need to suffer like this. All of us are feeling the same pain you are. You're not alone Alex. You have friends who'll care for you, lessen your pain."

"I don't have friends. I lost that privilege at Penn Station." He tensed up his legs and leapt into the distance. This time Kazehana didn't follow him.

XXXXXX

"I really don't think we should be out here in the open, Yukari," Shiina said with blatant fear. "What if Mercer finds us?"

"Even if by some unfortunate miracle that did happen, he wouldn't have any reason to hurt us. We've only met him once, and all you did was make him sick or something."

"Well maybe I don't like the feeling of illness." They both turned to see Mercer standing there. He slammed his right fist into his left hand and thrust his neck to the side. "I don't like mixing vendettas with pleasure, but for you I'll try to make an exception..."


End file.
